Perhaps you have never worked in the newspaper industry, but it is likely that over the years you have noticed the news cycle towards the end of December becomes heavy with retrospectives on the year that was.

More than a few tears and laughs have been shared in 2012 for both Whistler and Pemberton. As a community it is hard to not recognize the number of loved ones, friends and family that have left us along the road to 2013. Sarah Burke, Florence Petersen and Dave Cathers are but three names included in a list that is difficult to compile at the end of the year.

This edition of The Question is our year in review, which gives us a chance to reflect on the events that made headlines throughout the year and beyond the Sea to Sky corridor. The prosecution and sentencing of Robert Fawcett was closure to a painful chapter in this area. His actions had implications to the area beyond just criminal prosecution, it cast a shadow on tourism. Court cases can drag on for years, the fact that Fawcett took responsibility for is actions means we can all move on. The bear that attacked the guy in the hot tub also lit up the newsfeed of major outlets in Canada.

We would like to take this opportunity in the midst of looking back, to look ahead to 2013. Here is a wish list for what some of us here would like (tongue in cheek) to see happen in our communities over the next 12 months:

• Visitors flock to Whistler in record-breaking numbers and spend all their money at local businesses. Pie in the sky is always the best way to start a list.

• Another mega music festival comes to Pemberton in the summer now that other promoters are allowed to use the former Live Nation site. We want big names to play — Pemberton deserves the hype. We’re actually serious about this one.

• That transparency and accountability can come to mean that not only are members of the public allowed to ask questions to senior managers at the Resort Municipality of Whistler, but the local media may also interview these subject matter experts on the record to provide context to our news reporting.

• Somebody will be able to explain to us why is seems like the powers that be have it out for the Whistler Film Festival. After 12 years of developing this signature event, it would be nice to see the festival’s Rainbow Theatre project become a reality instead of continually languishing in the realm of doublespeak and politics.

• Saying you are “open for business” will actually mean something. It is about time that the public sector that is the RMOW and all its related organizations realizes they don’t actually know better than local business and they stop competing with services being offered by the private sector.

• Enough already with the asphalt plant.

• At a Whistler council meeting in 2013 there is a vote that is not unanimous. Always agreeing on everything all the time is making us suspicious.

• Instead of focusing entirely on room nights and visitation as the be all and end all, something actually gets done to make Whistler more affordable to live in.

• Everybody reads all the year in review stories we spent so much time working on this week.