Opinion

W e were lucky this week. The wildfire burning only 13 kilometres east of Squamish is now 75 per cent contained and, as of press time, it looks like the situation is under control. But the blaze was classified as “out of control,” growing to 3.

I met my neighbour at the end of the driveway on a sunny day late last month, my two-year-old daughter trailing on her bike behind me. He’s a retired accountant, in his 60s, who moved to Squamish with his wife and two children in the early 1980s.

Editor’s note: This is the second column in a two-part series on housing issues in Squamish. Giffen’s first column, “Socioeconomic divide becomes clear as development increases,” was published on June 7.

S quamish is a pretty progressive place. We are sensitive to changes in gender politics and culture: we celebrate diversity and, except for the topics of dogs and liquefied natural gas, seem to have a “live and let live” hippie vibe about us.

A spray park is not in the budget – hmm. I wonder if the hats and blue trees were in the budget? The money spent on the revised OCP could easily be spent here.

I always thought that a cruise ship coming to town made big money for the town. All those tourists hitting the local souvenir shops cause cash registers to ring.

I cannot believe they are cutting this big and beautiful tree located on Third Avenue across from the Helping Hands Shelter. I do not think there was a need to cut the tree for the development project as the tree was in the corner of the land.

To begin with we moved to Squamish in 1979. Our move here was for a job at Woodfibre. We bought a lot and built our house, nothing fancy but still our home.

I am responding to the notice in The Whistler Question on July 18 (page 14) about N’Quatqua Logging Co. Ltd. trying to form a Stewardship Plan for the Forest Licence A81779.

T hey say good fences make good neighbours.