No matter where you live, there are people who will reject your idea before you get to the end of your first sentence explaining it.
There are some who fear change so vehemently that they will start protesting before a company even has a chance to make a proposal, to put it forth publicly for consideration.
As The Squamish Chief first reported, The Jim Pattison Group is considering building a hotel in Squamish – and we’ve learned that it could be a large, upscale waterpark resort, a Great Wolf Lodge. This may be the ideal project for Squamish – or it may not be. It’s far too early to say. But let’s hope we haven’t already scared the company away.
The company has bought two acres on Aspen Road and would acquire further land for the hotel. Pattison already owns the only other Great Wolf Lodge location in Canada, in Niagara Falls, Ont. It’s a gorgeous resort, a dream location for families wanting to escape for fun, and if you want to go there, you might be surprised at how difficult it is to book a room because the place is so popular. Typical prices are $300-$500 a night, and some rooms include forts for kids.
Guests visit the resort and spend much of their time on site, enjoying the waterpark, arcade, kiddie spa, bowling alley, mini-golf, restaurants and other features; a resort is by definition self-contained. In many ways, it’s ideal tourism, as Squamish would not have to build or maintain new attractions for the visitors – everything will be on site. And visitors would remember Squamish as the place where they had some of the best times of their lives, a Disney-esque reverie of family fun.
For Squamish, there would be two key benefits: jobs and tax payments. Both would help every family in town. Mayor Patricia Heintzman said the group would hire 600 full-time and part-time professionals and service workers. That’s a lot of jobs for Squamish, and those employees would spend money in town, creating ripple effects. The other key benefit is tax payments, as Pattison (whose group already owns Nester’s and Save-On-Foods) would pay more commercial taxes into the district coffers.
It’s sad, then, that some people have rejected the idea before the group has even presented its proposal. That’s closed-minded. Let’s hear the idea; the group has asked to present to council in December. If you don’t like it at that point, voice your objections. But let the Pattison Group finish its sentence before cutting it off.
– Editor Christine Endicott
