Who should pay for trail building and maintenance in Squamish? Should taxpayer money go toward the trails infrastructure, just like it does toward Brennan Park Recreation Centre? Or should the district charge event participants for the trails?
On the heels of Mind Over Mountain Adventure Racing (MOMAR)'s decision to move to Burnaby and a day before B.C. Bike Race organizers presented their product and the Squamish marketing it provides to District of Squamish council (Jan. 18), the debate continues.
B.C. Bike Race (BCBR) organizers Tom Skinner and Dean Payne don't discount Squamish's contribution toward their event for the past three years BCBR riders have named Squamish their favourite stop on the seven-day adventure.
"Squamish has been voted No. 1 by our participants for the last three years," said BCBR president Payne. "People love Squamish. The trails are unbelievable."
"People" in this case aren't just British Columbians less than 50 per cent of BCBR participants are from Canada as the rest travel from Europe, Africa, New Zealand and elsewhere to take part in "The Ultimate Single Track Experience."
Nonetheless, as MOMAR organizer Bryan Tasaka pointed out last week, the red tape that accompanies the stunning viewscapes and epic trails doesn't make Squamish the most enjoyable venue for race organizers.
"It was a lot of work to get all the permits from the private landholders and Crown land," said Tasaka in a statement. "Todd Pope at the District was extremely helpful in providing contact information for the private landholders, but that list in addition to the tenure holder list from the Province was upwards of 15-20 permits.
"This was easily the most permits/permission letters that we have ever had to get for a MOMAR by comparison, Cumberland only requires three permits and Burnaby is two."
Skinner pointed out that for an event like BCBR, where 500 racers ride trails in six communities, Squamish accounts for a lot of paperwork.
He said Squamish's is by far the most expensive and time-consuming leg of the race to organize. Whereas other communities are rolling out the red carpet to entice such events into their areas, Squamish is adding an event rider fee to the equation.
"Squamish may be the rider's favourite but some towns cost us zero and they really want us there," Skinner said. "We love being there and it's easier for us to be there. It doesn't mean we don't enjoy being in Squamish, it just happens to be more expensive."
Both agreed the dialogue surrounding the $5 user fee is a step in the right direction, but they suggested there might be other, more productive ways to pay for trail maintenance. If every community the BCBR travels to charged a $5 user fee, it would be $20,000 more overall for the event.
"So it's about precedent," Payne said. "If this is going to be the standard in each town it becomes a problem."
Skinner also pointed out that events are already paying for trails through the permitting process.
"It's not like people are getting a free ride on the trails as it is now. There are already fees which are being paid to different Crown land groups, B.C. Parks groups, landowners, etc.," he said.
"So when you look at Bryan Tasaka and the MOMAR example, when you add up his permit fees he was probably already paying $7 or $8 a head trail fee so it was just an add-on from the District of Squamish.
"I'm not saying that's wrong, but at the same time I could go through our event and sell our event for $5, then have an add-on for insurance, an add-on for medical coverage, an add-on for tents, an add-on for this trail and that trail, this landowner and that landowner we have over 130 different permits for B.C. Bike Race we could list."
Payne said trails are a community amenity comparable to recreation centres and should be treated as such.
"There's a bigger discussion to be had about the $5 user fee," he said, adding that Whistler residents build and maintain their trails through taxpayer money.
"It's $1 million to build a soccer field and it's a similar asset. It's a recreational asset the community uses and so it's like building a new pool or a gym."
Payne said that for mountain towns in British Columbia, trails are a truly valuable asset "it's why a lot of us live in mountain towns, so it's an asset that we all cherish."
Coun. Bryan Raiser, who raved about the $5 user fee last week, sees Payne's and Skinner's point of view. He said trails neglect is "one of his biggest annoyances."
"It's complete rubbish that we subsidize the fields but consider trails worthless come budget time," Raiser said, who is both a field user and a trails user. "It's basically because of lack of leadership for years and politicians are too scared to make this a priority every year the trails budget is slashed."
Raiser said the battle between field and trail users has gone on for years. Trail users only grow more frustrated when they find out trails are maintained by volunteers but $350,000 per year gets spent on fields maintenance, he said.
Raiser said the $5 fee is in place because of the "historic lack of willingness to put money into trails by governments, despite the same governments advertising to the world for people to come here."
He sees the fee as an interim solution until council decides to address the issue.
"In Squamish we don't charge people to use the spit or fields in fact, we waive fields fees for events," said Raiser. "So yes, this 5$ does seem ridiculous, but it's all the trails have after fighting for years for recognition that the trails are an integral part of our economy as well as recreation infrastructure. Until the district and province recognize that at budget time, we have to take what we can get."
For the full story see the print version of The Chief on Friday (Jan. 21).
