Dear Editor,

In my native Slovenian folklore there is a funny series of tales about a village called Butale (translation, “Village of the Dumb”). One of the tales goes like this:

The villagers determined that their church needed to be enlarged. They decided to make it larger by pushing the walls from inside out. “How are we going to know how far we have to push?” they asked. The village mayor told them to lay their coats outside on the line to which they wanted to push the walls. They did, went inside and pushed hard on the inside walls for an hour. During this time a Gypsy happens to come by, sees coats on the ground and steals them. After an hour, the villagers come out, see no coats and exclaim: “We really made the church very large. We have pushed the walls over our coats!”

Sometimes I think I have moved to exactly such a village when I see decisions of our mayor and RMOW council and especially their voting to enshrine the asphalt plant in Whistler. Maybe they are afraid to lay their coats 15 km out of Whistler. All their pushing will result in meagre 300-metre move.

I can’t believe that except for four councillors voting for the zoning, there is a single person in Whistler which thinks that an asphalt plant belongs in this tourist town. But we can huff and puff all we want; council has over and over again proven that it has absolutely no regard for the opinions of the residents.

And should we believe the politicians when they say that something is safe? If we do, then we really are living in Butale.

In the anticipation of the forgone conclusion that the zoning will pass, I have few proposals how to react. Firstly, we should dedicate the asphalt plant to our mayor Ken. Well-deserving mayors usually get bridges, parks, libraries, etc. dedicated to them. The asphalt plant will be enshrined in the Whistler history as the legacy of our environmentalist Mayor Ken Melamed. It is amazing what politics does to people. He must feel like those orthodox Chinese Communists who are now the worst capitalists.

Secondly, we should take the onus on us to get the plant out of Whistler. I wrote before that this is all RMOW screw-up and I do not blame the plant.

However, now the company should see that the residents are not happy with the solution that is being pushed through. In the next election, we should elect the candidates that submit a written pledge to direct RMOW not to do business with the plant. And all of us, private citizens, businesses and stratas, should do the same. It may cost a bit more, but the cleaner air may be worth it. No business, no plant.

One way or another, we will have to pay for this mess. RMOW could offer the company tax incentives to improve their business on another location.

If they granted tax money to WB for Peak 2 Peak, they could grant money to the asphalt plant. And to pay for this we could sell the ex-hostel Alta Lake property. We cannot have it all — clean air or more recreational space. It is a question of priorities.

When all is said and done, the final result will solely depend on us, the residents and taxpayers. We determine in what kind a village we live.

Drago Arh

Whistler