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The SSC enigma

Winston Churchill's famous portrayal of Russia as “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma,” could be considered an apt description of the Squamish Sustainability Corporation (SSC), from the moment of its inception to its most recent incarnation.

Sometime shortly after the last municipal election the SSC morphed into a business entity whose board of directors was comprised entirely of council members.

This changing of the guard was the result of a mass resignation by the existing board whose members cited an acrimonious working environment.

Prior to that, various salaried SSC operatives were let go or departed to less politically charged jurisdictions.

So what exactly does the corporation do? This much we know: the Squamish SSC is an arm’s length, wholly owned entity of the District of Squamish. It operates the Adventure Centre, which acts as a portal for tourism/business development and other projects.

After this brief introduction the job description gets fuzzier. According to the muni website, “The Adventure Centre houses a unique collaboration between SSC, the Chamber of Commerce the BC Centre for Tourism Leadership and Innovation and a host of project/event specialists. Hence, agencies and individuals supporting business and tourism development function collaboratively, the only truly sustainable paradigm for community development.”

If we cut through this thin-on-details marketing buzz, the simple conclusion is that the SSC is the district’s commercial lynchpin and its range of operations is set to increase in the foreseeable future.

Recently it has come to our attention that under the Corporations Act, meetings will not be open to the public because, according to one of the legal eagles on council, the SSC operates “in a completely different environment.”

Given such a strict legal interpretation of the SSC mandate, far more information about how it conducts business needs to be forthcoming in a timely fashion.

Let’s recall that the previous version of this enterprise was shrouded in ambiguity, and suffered from communication and accountability challenges. And if taxpayers are footing the tab, a host of questions require answers.

For starters, exactly what is the relationship between Business Development Squamish, Tourism Squamish and the SSC?

If the corporation is one of the principal engines of economic development in this community, this connection needs to be clarified.

More questions follow in quick succession. What is the current financial status of the SSC in terms of expenditures? How much commercial activity has the corporation actually solicited and at what cost to taxpayers? How will the SSC leverage the Olympics?

There is another worrisome aspect to all of this. As most councillors will attest, they are already overloaded with committees, snowed under with official documents, and saddled with an array of missives to be digested for each council meeting.

How realistic is it to expect councillors to engage in an undertaking that will increasingly become more labour intensive, given that some believe a raise in their stipend should be forthcoming to reflect the onerous workload with which they are already burdened?

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