Those of us that live in Squamish know what an amazing community this is. The rest of the world has now also become aware. Just last week as I was driving by the Cenotaph in Stan Clark Park about 9 p.m. there were two people standing in the middle of the street taking a picture of the park with the Canadian flag flying over the Cenotaph, the new seating, trees and the mountains in the background. I stopped to say hello. They had just finished taking pictures of the Chief and looking straight down Cleveland at Mt. Garibaldi. They were just passing through town on the way from Kentucky to Alaska and could not stop exclaiming what an amazingly beautiful community Squamish is.
A few days after that I was at the Adventure Centre and sat down to share a coffee with someone passing through and who had just been downtown. They were very excited about the buzz about town and said they could feel the enthusiasm and vibrancy in the community.
Last year we hosted 72 events. Many of these involved participants from around the world. This year we are already up to 60 with many more to come through the rest of the year. Squamish just finished successfully hosting both the B.C. Bike Race and the Squamish Triathlon and we are looking forward to Loggers Sports, Squamish Valley Music Festival, GanFondo, Squamish Art Crawl, National Kite Boarding Championship and many more.
Council has recognized how important these events and the film industry are to Squamish. Besides making this a very exciting community to live in, they also contribute significantly to our local economy. They each have their own staff and amazing armies of volunteers to make them a success.
With all these events taking place it has become vital that the district play a role in co-ordinating them. If these organizers run into difficulty it is not long before that news travels and we risk losing them and potential new events to other communities. The district has just advertised for a film and events manager to be the "go to" person for all these events and the film industry.
This person will coordinate all the departments within the district to streamline the processes. (We have had over 100 applicants so I anticipate the hiring of an excellent candidate.) Council is cognizant of keeping staffing levels under control and not negatively impacting taxes. This new position has only been made possible by taking advantage of a vacancy created by a retirement in recreation services and realigning our resources to better serve our community.
By co-ordinating permitting, licensing, road closures, parking, use of facilities etc. this film and events manager will relieve these tasks from our economic development officer allowing Dan McRae to focus his energy on attracting new employers to Squamish.
