Sylvie Paillard
spaillard@squamishchief
Council for the District of Squamish made a last minute decision Wednesday (Feb. 8) to send councillors Patricia Heintzman and Mike Jenson to the Torino Winter Games Feb. 10 to 26.
Mayor Ian Sutherland also plans fit a shorter trip to Torino into an already busy schedule.
Council members first debated the issue during Tuesday's (Feb. 7) regular council meeting. Sutherland said Squamish should be represented along with "almost every other" municipality in the Lower Mainland in order to find benefits for Squamish. "We can still hold out hope for things like Paralympics in the future," he said.
Squamish would also like to offer training facilities to athletes and accommodations to their families, said Sutherland. "To do that we must have people there. There's lots of competitions to host teams."
The Mayor's recommendation was to send one elected official and one staff member to the Italy, but that decision was amended to include two elected officials and the mayor with an expenditure cap of $12,000. The cost would cover travel, accommodation and meals, while the cost of any events would be out of pocket.
Before a decision was made, councillors weighed in on the issue.
Coun. Corinne Lonsdale was reluctant to agree with sending the delegates saying that there isn't enough information, or even an itinerary to accompany the recommendation. She added that she'd heard suggestions from the community that delegates go to Torino afterward or bring delegates here to learn from their experiences. Kahlon agreed that expenditures would be best spent on a follow-up visit.
Sutherland said that might happen still as follow-up would be needed, but nothing could beat having "eyes on the ground."Coun. Jeff MacKenzie said Squamish would "be remiss" if they didn't send delegates. Councilor Patricia Heintzman said that as a delegate for the Humanity Village project going to Sri Lanka, she realized that the group could not have accomplished what they did without being there.
Jenson agreed. "If we want to show VANOC we're supportive of the Olympics we have to go."
Sutherland suggested that the best delegates would be two elected officials: Heintzman for her marketing background and Jenson for his financial and sports background.
Lonsdale said in that case, she would have to oppose the recommendation.
"You need to be one of them; I was always more recognized and treated differently as a mayor," said Lonsdale to Sutherland. "Although I'm not sure your eyes are very good either."
Council carried the motion to send two delegates to Torino with Kahlon and Lonsdale opposing before recessing to make the final decision at a special meeting at the Adventure Centre boardroom Wednesday.
