Message from the Mayor

Dear Residents, Property Owners and Guests,

In our busy day to day lives, we often don’t have time to recognize the struggles and difficulties that our neighbours might be facing.  Yet, disasters or accidents bring out the best in most people, we rush into risky situations to help those in need without giving it too much thought.  It is heartwarming to see people’s response when disasters strike.

We are already hearing wonderful stories about those in Sun Peaks who have helped and assisted friends and neighbours in the past six months, thank you all for caring so much.  Winter 2020/21 will continue to test us all! Successfully managing our community during COVID 19 is now a collective undertaking with huge individual responsibilities.

While contracting the Coronavirus is not a death sentence for most people, it is for some. Those who contract it must not be publicly shamed, it can happen to anyone, but we can reduce our risks by just paying attention. For those who do test positive, the personal guilt will be whether or not we carelessly passed on the virus to our friends and family. Did you expose your household so that they all need to self-quarantine? Have your parents or grandparents been exposed? How will you feel when someone close to you has long term COVID health issues? I love the slogan “You can be the reason that we have a ski season”.

Hopefully, Sun Peaks will open to ‘out of community’ visitors. It is almost certain that a COVID carrier who doesn’t show any symptoms will show up, in fact there will likely be numerous carriers coming, almost guaranteed.  Physical distancing and masks will give us a better chance of avoiding exposure and avoiding COVID is everyone’s responsibility.

A major outbreak of COVID 19 in our community would likely mean a shutdown of the community similar to the infamous March 20th Day.  We were all shocked at how quickly we became a ghost town.  Any type of shutdown will have enormous impacts on us all - jobs, our friends and our social lives will all be put on immediate hold. If you are feeling sick or live with someone who is feeling sick, self-isolate immediately and take a test and keep self-isolating until you get the results. Don’t be the reason we don’t have a ski season!!

This winter season is looking great, we have super early snow and there is excitement in the air.  We have guests who truly believe that we can safely ski and stand in lift lines without great risk.  Ski teams from across the country are already here taking advantage of our early season conditions. Our challenge is to make sure that nobody brings all this excitement to a standstill.

We ask all guests to be respectful of our community.  We must all make sure that we don’t let our guards down even for just one handshake or hug.  Let’s keep sanitizing our hands and keeping our distances even on the slopes.  Be cautious when inside, the greatest risks will occur indoors where groups gather, in restaurants, bars, and washrooms.

We are hopeful that we will not have to ticket those who do not respect the Provincial guidelines.  However, we will be monitoring the community and for those who decide that they are willing to risk closing the ski season, we wish to assure you that we will act swiftly.  Our goal is to avoid an uncontrollable COVID outbreak!  Hopefully, everyone shares these goals.

Mayor Al Raine