Editor's note: This is a letter to Squamish mayor and council. It was copied to The Chief for publication.
I would like to commend Councillor Raiser for his attempt at trying to resurrect the failed $30,000 budget allocation for trail maintenance. Though his call for "increased democracy" might not have been proper justification for "revisiting budget line items," common sense was reason enough.
Squamish is often touted as a soccer-mad town with approximately 1,000 participants in the "beautiful game" and this being justification for significant DOS investment in soccer-related infrastructure. These large numbers also form the principal argument behind the proposal to turf the all-weather fields using the hotly disputed Olympic Legacy funding. As a former soccer coach and father of two kids who played rep soccer, I fully support the need to undertake this project. However, in our resource-poor community, decisions on recreation funding have to be based on sound rationale.
As an advocate for investment in our outdoor recreation infrastructure and more specifically our trail network, I would argue that this long-ignored sector is the most deserving of attention from our municipal government.
After some informal chats with various trail user groups, I came up with a conservative number of approximately 3,000 active trail users in our community. For the trail walkers, the ever-growing group of trail runners, the serious hiking crowd, the many dog walkers and of course, the surging numbers of mountain bikers, trails are the key recreation resource of our community.
Regrettably, for the non-trail-using members of council, even the mention of trails gets their backs up. This group thinks that far too much time and resources are dedicated to trails. The reality couldn't be further from the truth. Admittedly, an enormous amount of volunteer time and resources go into our trail system but the annual contribution from the municipality can best be described as "peanuts." Even a paltry $30,000 for trail maintenance is too much for these councillors.
For the SSC to be sustainable, for the Adventure Centre to justify its existence, for tourism to grow, for recreation businesses to thrive and, most importantly, for Squamish to attract the lifestyle-dependent, knowledge and technology-based industries, an investment in trails is an essential strategy.
I challenge the non-trail users on council to better understand that large part of the community and visitors that see our incredible natural surroundings so differently.Jim HarveyGaribaldi Highlands
