The former resource town is booming. Its mayor sees it as a microcosm of British Columbia, where dependence on forestry is being replaced by the knowledge industry and education. For some, the change is bleak.
Published: Globe and Mail, October 20, 2006
By DEBORAH JONES, SQUAMISH
A spontaneous trip on the Sea to Sky Highway 15 years ago changed Ian Sutherland's life. The publishing executive had moved from New Brunswick to North Vancouver, where he was living in a cramped fourplex. "I went for a drive one day and fell in love with Squamish," he recalled. He and his wife immediately decided to buy a house and raise their family in the industrial town.
Perhaps it took a "come from away" -- as people in Mr. Sutherland's native province call newcomers -- to see the potential of once-bedraggled Squamish. With hindsight, his move seems prescient: Today, Squamish is booming, and as mayor, Mr. Sutherland is trying to manage what seems like an instant change from heavy industry to a university town.
"We have a unique chance to shape a town," he said. "Squamish is a microcosm of British Columbia, with dependence on forestry resources being replaced by the knowledge industry and educational institutions. What we do in the next two or three years will have a lasting impact. There is no time for paralysis by analysis."
Tuesday night, in a 4-3 vote, council approved a massive redevelopment of Squamish's industrial waterfront lands, a stone's throw from the tiny downtown strip.
The narrow vote was for a memorandum of understanding between Squamish Oceanfront Development Corporation, owned by the town, and private developer Qualex Landmark Group, to develop 24 hectares of land and an 18-hectare water lot. The deal will be finalized Dec. 31, said Mike Chin of Squamish Oceanfront, and plans may include a waterfront hotel, marina, restaurant, shops, parkland and 800 to 2,500 multifamily housing units.
"This development is supposed to rebrand Squamish, put it on the map, and turn it from a resource town into a new economy town," Mr. Chin said.
Not long ago, many British Columbians -- including the recreation set who roared through Squamish in their SUVs on their way between Whistler and Greater Vancouver -- called this town "Squish," Squash," or "Swampish." The nicknames had nothing to do with Squamish's setting, so stunning it evokes the legend of Shangri-La, a mythical mountain refuge in Buddhist lore. The town of 15,000, which includes aboriginal lands, is wedged on a rolling plateau along the waters of Howe Sound fjord, and surrounded by mountains.
But as a community, Squamish is hard to pin down. Instead of a strong town centre, its strip malls, gas stations, fast-food outlets and residential suburbs sprawl for kilometres alongside Highway 99. Until recently, a pungent cloud from a pulp mill hung over the town. There were no cinemas or large stores, and people drove to Greater Vancouver to play and shop, spending 71 per cent of local wages elsewhere, Mr. Sutherland said.
Worse yet, with 80 per cent of its economy reliant on forestry, Squamish was vulnerable to downturns -- and since the downturn began in the early 1990s, it has lost 600 high-paying union jobs. The town is also partly isolated because of the treacherous way out -- two lanes hacked into the steep-walled cliffs of Howe Sound to the south, or an ascent to Whistler in the north.
The town looked to new heavy industries, including a wood-chip plant for the waterfront. But six years ago, Mr. Sutherland and a group of other newcomers became involved in politics, and soon Squamish was split along new-economy and old-economy lines. Plans for the wood-chip plant were defeated, and in subsequent local elections, Mr. Sutherland and a new slate of candidates successfully ran for council.
The 600 big union jobs seem to be gone for good, but Squamish has caught the wave of the superheated real-estate market of Greater Vancouver, preparations for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, and, most critically, the $600-million provincial government upgrade to the highway.
Quest University, a new private institution, chose to locate in Squamish, and campus construction worth $100-million is taking place for a 2007 opening. The town is expected to eventually double in size to 31,000, and big-box stores such as Wal-Mart, Canadian Tire and Home Depot have opened or announced outlets. Small entrepreneurs have set up eco-tourism adventure outfits and restaurants, and virtually every business now has a "help wanted" sign on the door.
The jokes about "Swampish" have stopped. Recently, a glossy Vancouver food publication ran the teasing headline with a story about the Burrow, a new Squamish tapas bar: "Sexy . . . cocktails . . . lounge . . . tapas . . . Squamish. Which one of these words doesn't fit?" "None!" the story exclaimed in surprise.
The Burrow is co-owned by Seleena Shourie and Amy Huddle, a former Whistler landscape architect-turned restaurateur, who said Squamish has become the choice for many outdoorsy young adults. "There's an old Squamish, the logging blue-collar Squamish, and there's this young energy that's coming in, filtering up from the city up or from Whistler down," said Ms. Huddle, just after a crew from the Food Network filmed a segment about her restaurant. "The only complaint, with the great houses and great community, is there are not enough amenities."
Not everyone is thrilled with the town's metamorphosis.
"As soon as they announced the upgrades to the Sea to Sky Highway, the Lower Mainland started moving in," said former mayor Corrine Lonsdale, who spent 20 years in local politics. "We're growing way too fast. . . . It's becoming unaffordable [and] our children won't be able to afford single-family dwellings." Ms. Lonsdale said two of her three adult children now live in Prince George because of the high cost of housing in Squamish.
Despite talk about the 2010 Olympics -- the organizing committee has a controversial plan to berth a cruise ship in Squamish to house journalists covering the games in Whistler -- Mr. Sutherland sees Quest University as the key to its future. He said the university will employ as many people as a recently closed forest facility, and have a bigger payroll. And because of Quest, many companies -- such as his own publishing firm -- are locating in Squamish.
Such companies don't help the large blue-collar population, Mr. Sutherland acknowledged. The new economy will provide "different kinds of jobs, not ones that people can transfer from one to another."
For some, the changes are bleak. This fall, saw the opening of a drop-in centre for homeless people.
However, many people are coming here for new opportunities, Ms. Huddle said. "It feels like there's young fresh blood in the town."
POSTSCRIPT: On the day this story was published Qualex Landmark Group pulled out of the deal, citing changes demanded by town council and leaving the waterfront development uncertain.
Copyright Deborah Jones 2006
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