Message from the Mayor

When I volunteered for the position of Mayor, I truly believed that my experience on the inaugural Whistler Council and many years in resort tourism would be an asset as Sun Peaks grew toward a leading mountain resort community. I knew that to be a great resort, we needed to be a great community.  With the already friendly ‘Tod’ spirit and a very capable resort owner, we just needed to focus on community services and well -being.  Never did I envision, that we might be asked to provide leadership during a period when the airlines, hotels, restaurants, bars, in fact the entire tourism infrastructure would be shuttered by government orders and we are told to stay home.

Looking forward, we are faced with some major challenges as the Covid-19 disruption works its way through our social and economic structure. We will come through this struggle and there remains a bright future for our community. We have a strong community spirit, we have a committed resort owner and committed businesses and most importantly, we have huge numbers of very satisfied past guests.

First, we must make sure that the Corona virus is chased out of town and is not circulating in the Kamloops region or B.C. in general.  To achieve this, we must continue with our social distancing, hand cleaning and hopefully we will have broader testing in the future. Even when the infection rates turn down, we will need to continue with all these practices and hope that the vaccination will soon be ready.

We have seen almost all businesses in Sun Peaks close.  This means that there are many families who no longer have a pay cheque and some won’t have the financial resources to carry on for the next four to six months. The federal and provincial governments are trying to help but some people will fall through the cracks.  Within hours of the resort shutdown, we received calls from residents offering cash, food and support for those who might need help.  A group of focused volunteers have formed the SP Community Helps group.

The phone number for SP Community Helps group is 236-822-0550 and email  spcommunityhelps@gmail.com. If you are feeling stressed or need a helping hand on anything, call to speak confidentially to a volunteer.  These wonderful people are ready to assist.

For those who can, please consider forwarding funding support.  Income tax deduction receipts are available for all donations made to Sun Peaks Mountain Resort Municipality, SP Community Helps fund.  Donations can be made by cheque or by etransfer.  Etransfers to dof@sunpeaksmunicipality.ca using the password 'sphelps', or support cheques can be mailed to Sun Peaks Mountain Resort Municipality, 106-3270 Village Way, Sun Peaks V0E 5N0 attention SPCommunityHelps Fund.

Please help if you can.  Our goal is to raise $50,000.

We will be ready when this virus runs its course.  I have confidence in our community’s resilience. However, we must continue to work even closer together to overcome the challenges that lie ahead. The leadership in the business community, Sun Peaks Resort LLP, Tourism Sun Peaks and the Municipality must come together and plan for a bold relaunch even before we see the green light. There will be many sunny summer days ahead and a winter with more great ski days.  Let’s pull together and support one another!

Al Raine

Mayor, Sun Peaks Mountain Resort Municipality.