A series of open houses for the proposed four-season resort Garibaldi at Squamish (GAS) has left some Squamish residents feeling less involved than ever. At an open house at the Sea to Sky Hotel on Wednesday (March 5), audience members stood up from their seats in protest upon learning the presentation by proponent Mike Esler would not be followed by questions and answers. Instead, people were encouraged to mill about the room, writing comments in paper form and asking questions with experts one-on-one. The room of about 100 people bore stark contrast to the open house hosted one night earlier in Whistler, where Esler said about 23 people were in attendance.There, officials at B.C.'s Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) appeared to have resolved at least one issue with regard to GAS: Whistler does have a place at the discussion table.During a series of open houses beginning in Whistler, Mayor Ken Melamed offered up a list of concerns about the proposal in the form of a letter last August, EAO officials called and offered the Resort Municipality of Whistler a spot on the working group looking at resort plans.The fact that one of this week's three GAS open houses took place in Whistler also seems a clear indication that when Squamish Mayor Ian Sutherland said he was "miffed that Whistler would stick their nose in this right now," EAO officials did not share that sentiment.In fact, Graeme McLaren, EAO project assessment director, said at Tuesday's (March 5) open house at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler that officials' initial failure to seek input from Whistler officials was "an oversight."Melamed noted that in 2007, Whistler's average hotel room occupancy was 54 per cent. He said he wants to see evidence that current ski-industry growth projections are realistic and that GAS wouldn't simply grab market share away from Whistler."Our resort is overbuilt and we want to get back to a sustainable business level before we have to deal with competition on our doorstep." Esler said clustering resorts will increase the success of each business, but he noted Whistler might lose out on Squamish-based staff."It's pretty obvious that if we get the go ahead, people who are making the commute are going to come to us."At Wednesday's open house, he stayed optimistic despite some angry outcries."The tone of this room does not reflect the public," he said, calling those in support of the project "the silent majority."Squamish resident Graham Fuller said he was open to hearing the proponent's answers to his questions but was turned off by the format."I protest the entire process that we went through tonight. It's was a charade that passes for public exchange," he said.Esler said there would be future open houses where attendants would have the chance to voice their concerns at a microphone.Save Garibaldi, which opposes the project, will be holding forums March 11 at Gelato Carina at 7:30 p.m. and April 2 at the Brackendale Art Gallery at 8 p.m.
