02.25
THE PROBLEM
Intrawest and Whistler.com have had no choice over the last while to lay off employees left right and center. As illustrated in the article written in The Pique, by Andrew Mitchell, Intrawest has had to lay off a large chunk of its staff.
WHO THE PROBLEM IS AFFECTING
Intrawest wouldn’t directly respond to the Pique’s inquiries regarding how many staff were laid off, but information in The Steamboat Pilot (a Colorado publication) suggested that quite a few of the layoffs were taking place in Vancouver’s head office.
This is clearly a trend that isn’t only affecting Whistler, but several other Intrawest resorts. I’m sure that this is a trend that is happening all across North America. I’m assuming people just don’t have the money to spend on vacations in these uncertain times.
Whistler Blackcomb did confirm that several of the layoffs were happening within the ski school. Christine Moore wrote to The Pique saying “In particular we have had to lay off a number of our instructors from the Ski and Snowboard School. With the decline in destination visitors we have not seen the same interest in lessons as we do in a normal year, and there simply isn’t enough work for them.”
WHAT NOW?
I won’t continue paraphrasing Andrew’s article - I suggest you read it, but I what I’d also like to suggest is that clearly times are tough for the people who live here in Whistler. If you look in the daily links, I linked to another article on Ski Town Journal.com talking about the paradox of living in a destination town.
How are we supposed to deal with something like this happening to our town. There are many transient workers that have no choice but to leave and to go back to where they came from. That’s not an option for most of us and it’s important that we put our heads together and try to remedy situations like this. I don’t know how yet.
WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW!
Join the WhistlerWatch.com Facebook Group and post some suggestions as to how we can make the standard of living higher for the citizens of Whistler. Find out ways as to how we can have everyone do better, including Intrawest, the company that employs most of our town. I’m not trying to self promote WhistlerWatch.com as a facebook group. I’m trying to bring voices together so they can collectively come up with a solution.