"Council should pass a motion for these people to please come back when they've stopped lying."
-Back row banter at the gondola meeting Sept. 28
Did anyone see this one coming? The gondola up the Chief. Seriously, did anyone actually see this coming?
Reflecting on the most preposterous idea I've ever heard I now realize we have entered a new day of Squamish. Today anything sounds reasonable because hey, "It's not like they're putting a gondola up the Chief." It is now the yardstick by which all hare-brained proposals shall be measured.
The first Chief gondola proposal came to council and I still can't figure out if they're serious or just mocking us. The proposal itself was a joke so completely riddled with misinformation that one might wonder just what their true intentions were. The show started with the baffling statement that the only opponents are "An elite group of fit young people".
I'm flattered, but if he bothered to looked closely at the crowd at Brennan Park that night I'm pretty sure beer guts and balding heads far outnumbered the fit and young. Sadly, this pretty much sums up just how far removed from our community they are.
Also in attendance was a representative of the Minister of Water, Land and Air Protection, who came to Squamish to have one question answered: Does the community of Squamish endorse making an amendment to the Stawamus Chief Provincial Park Master Plan? Our mayor and council had this opportunity to say no but they didn't. They appeared to panic and simply said that a gondola is welcome, just not on the summit of the Chief.
Argh! Why, oh why, prolong this matter when you could have simply said "In the Stawamus Chief provincial park"? All the Ministry wanted to hear was that we wouldn't oppose the Liberals' move to open parks for business. As it is now, when it comes to parks, corporations have to stay away. Not even an ice cream truck is allowed to peddle their wares so as not to disrupt your experience. Allowing this project in the park would open the floodgate for all kinds of things that people use the parks to get away from.
Thankfully the proponents' lack of research didn't manage to charm the Squamish Nation, who made it very clear that the issue is the entire park. I can only imagine the awkward silence that must have followed the best part of their presentation: "You won't even notice it, we'll just put it up the backside of the Chief"
Later the proponents commented they didn't realize how significant the Chief is to them...are you listening to yourself? It's called the Stawamus Chief for crying in the soup!
So for now, the Chief gondola issue is at intermission. While we wait, other contentious location talk runs rampant. I'm excited about the gondola to Echo Lake (motor vehicles prohibited of course) and a hut system throughout the Tantalus Range.
Yes, I know the proposal is not without its detractors, but hey "It's not like they're putting a gondola up the Chief..."
