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BackcountryBC met today with Rod Macleod, vice president of planning with the Aquilini Group down at Rogers Arena. We discussed our concerns with the Garibaldi at Squamish development.
We strayed onto the topic of Singing Pass access. Mr. Macleod worked at Whistler Mountain when Peter Alder was the general manager. Mr. Alder signed Whistler Mountain's first master development agreement with the province in 1981. The agreement bound Whistler Mountain to maintain the Singing Pass public road allowing private vehicles to reach the parking lot at the park boundary. But, in 1997, long after Mr. Alder left as GM, Whistler Blackcomb broke the agreement by unilaterally gating the Singing Pass road down in the village.
Mr. Macleod recalls that the spirit of the agreement was to continue and accommodate public access for private vehicles. It is not a stretch of imagination to link the closing of the road by WB to the opening of its mountain bike park above the road—restricting public access for the pursuit of private profit, said to be $50 million a year by Mr. Macleod.
We will continue to meet with Mr. Macleod and the Aquilini Group to lay out parameters for recreation and conservation at Brohm Ridge to best serve the backcountry community, wildlife and park users to ensure the bad example set by Whistler Blackcomb/Vail at Whistler does not repeat.