Highway 99 is the lifeline of the Sea to Sky Corridor, but every time it shuts down, whether for an accident, mudslide, or an event like the Gran Fondo, the economic and social costs are far greater than most realize.
As I calculate it, a full six-hour closure results in roughly $3.5 million in direct economic losses: stalled commuters, stranded tourists, delayed deliveries, lost business revenue, and the costs of emergency response. Add the stress, frustration, and well-being impacts on tens of thousands of people, and the total climbs above $7.5 million, by my numbers, for just one event.
The damage doesn’t stop there. Governments at all levels lose almost $1 million in tax revenue per closure, $70,000 for local municipalities, $455,000 for the province, and $420,000 for Ottawa.
Over a typical summer with four major closures, the corridor could lose $14 million in direct economic activity, $16 million in psychological impact, and nearly $4 million in forgone tax revenue. In years with heavier incident frequency, the burden could balloon to $42–84 million annually.
For residents and businesses in Squamish, Whistler, and Pemberton, these closures are not occasional inconveniences; they are recurring economic shocks. Tourism, service industries, commuters, and supply chains all suffer ripple effects that compound over time. Beyond the dollars, repeated highway shutdowns erode trust in the corridor’s resilience and reputation.
Some years ago, an RCMP spokesperson said that it would be too expensive to have an ICARS unit based here. I guess they didn’t model opportunity costs. More recently, some pundits have been saying that a train would be too slow and too expensive. Ditto. Squamish and the SLRD are developing needed housing at a breakneck speed. So much so that they are now bedroom communities of the cities to the south.
We urgently need serious investment in mitigation strategies: alternate routes, stronger incident management, or a reliable rail service. When we weigh the costs of building better infrastructure, we must also weigh the hidden but very real opportunity cost of doing nothing. Every closure is a reminder that the status quo is not sustainable for our communities or our economy.
Patrick Smyth
Whistler
