Tag Archive for: Whistler

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Should we Scrap the District Energy System?

My favorite economist, Milton Friedman, used a handy little quadrant to explain four ways to spend money: One, your money on yourself- you spend to gain the highest value. Two, spending your money on someone else – say a gift, you still look for value but remember, it’s the thought that counts. Third, spending someone else’s money on yourself; value is going to be a lot less important. Lastly, spending someone else’s money on someone else – no concern about price or value. This fourth way, dear reader, is the way the government spends your money.

That’s why taxpayers are often left out in the cold. A perfect example of this is the District Energy System.

Let me first say mea culpa. I was on the Council that approved the District Energy System and I was on the Whistler 2020 Development Corporation Board that developed Cheakamus Crossing, which by the way was the most talented group ever put together to work on a project in Whistler. You can’t blame that group for the problems with the DES. You can blame the Council that approved it, but ultimately it’s the council of the day that is responsible for it now.

Here’s how councils make these decisions: they blow a lot of hot air and make statements like “were going to be the greenest town on earth!” This is music to the ears of a seemingly endless parade of environmental consultants that tell you about this amazing technology that is going to save you tons of greenhouse gas emissions and save millions of dollars. It’ll cost you a fortune up front but that’s okay, you’ll have huge savings later. This gives councilors a warm and fuzzy feeling and they can brag about their green credentials, so they approve it. The list is long of underperforming extremely expensive technology that’s supposed to save you money down the road… but, it’s a dead end! These schemes rarely, if ever, provide the cost savings that are promised.

The aftermath of these decisions leads to the sunk cost fallacy; the idea that people are likely to continue with a project if they have already invested a lot of money, time, or effort in it, even when continuing is not the best option. Chillingly I believe this is the case with the DES. The residents of Cheakamus Crossing never asked for the greenest, fanciest, most complex heating system in the world. I think they just want to turn the heat up or down depending on whether they’re hot or cold. It’s time to call an electrician, rip out the DES and put in baseboard heating; at least you’ll know how it works and if there’s a problem you can call the electrician back and tell him to fix it.

After reviewing the 20 page Council report on the DES, I’d say it generates a lot of heat but no light, my takeaway from the report lies in the final paragraph, “We feel the RMOW is doing a good job running and maintaining the DES system.” I’m sure they are, the problem is that the RMOW is spending your money running and maintaining something they shouldn’t be… It should make your blood boil.

Ralph Forsyth is a local entrepreneur, Ski Instructor and Bike Guide he served on Whistler Council from 2005 to 2011 He’s an eccentric who likes to wear suits, quote Machiavelli and throw down big tricks in the bike park.

This Column was originally printed in the Whistler Question’s “Off the Record” on July 12, 2016

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The Trouble with Normal

No, there is no dog sh*t fairy.

What do dog shit and junk mail have in common? Besides the fact that they’re both super irritating they’re both excellent examples of cost externalization. If you’re not familiar with the term, Cost Externalization is a socioeconomic term used to describe how a business can maximizes its profits by off-loading indirect costs thus, forcing negative effects and costs on to a third party. In both cases dear taxpayer, the third party is you. Your ire should be piqued by the fact that the “government” (Local Provincial and Federal) are the enablers of this behaviour.

 

Recent letters to the editor and some fine local reporting provide the backdrop for both. First is the case of Canada Post (and to a larger extent their political masters- the federal liberals) they’ve had to cut their costs despite the fact that in the most recent Canada Post segment report shows that direct marketing contributed almost $1.2 billion in revenue. Direct Marketing volumes rose by 0.2 per cent or 10 million pieces compared to 2014 while revenue fell by $11 million or 0.9 per cent. Canada Post however is way off side of its pension plan liabilities, the solvency deficit is estimated at $6.2 Billion. The result: no more on site recycling, you have to take the junk mail home with you to recycle it.

 

Second is the constant irritant of dog feces as a coach, nothing makes my blood boil more than having one of my athletes leaving the field crying because he’s covered in dog shit! I was shocked to hear from one of the managers of our playing fields that he had removed over 100 Kilos of dog waste from the Spruce Grove Fields alone! In this case however it’s not a business (or even a crown corporation) that’s externalizing its costs- it’s our fellow citizens, and the externalization is in reverse proportion, it’s a very small cost in time effort and supplies to clean up after a dog, versus the cost to Municipal Taxpayers for the added time and energy of removing dog feces from our parks and trails– imagine how long it takes to clear 100 Kilos of dog waste from a single park, now multiply that by 12 parks.

 

In both cases, picking up after your dog, and doing your own direct mail recycling aren’t such onerous tasks, but the nanny state has made people feel that they shouldn’t have to be responsible for these tasks. You’ve become conditioned to think the government should do it for you. When the government steps into the domain of what should by all rights be the purview of the common citizenry community mindedness atrophies. The result is that leaving dog waste and recycling for others to clean up is anti-social behavior, that has become normal. And as Bruce Cockburn sang “The trouble with normal is it always gets worse”.

 

Not that I’m nostalgic for a more libertarian past, but back in the day, my grandfather had a not so elegant but very effective solution to the problem of dogs shitting on his lawn… He would shoot them. There was very little dog shit in grandpa’s neighbourhood, he didn’t call his MP, MLA or his city councillor about the problem of dog excrement. He took care of things himself. Now I’m not advocating vigilantism, but in the absence of any kind of policy from local government it may be a last resort. Because this type of transgression individually is relatively small, conventional wisdom suggests that it warrants neither serious bylaw enforcement nor punishment, as result, nothing is done about it. I would suggest adopting a zero tolerance policy towards any littering and hiring more bylaw officers to enforce it. The problem with instituting a policy like this in Whistler is that it would be political suicide, let’s face it Whistler is likely the most dog crazy place in the world. This issue -which has been around for years, and drove me crazy when I was on council- will continue as normal, with the players involved hoping to provoke change without ever having to take responsibility for it.

 

 

Ralph Forsyth is an entrepreneur and ski instructor, he served as a Whistler Councillor from 2005 to 2011 He always dances as if everyone is watching.

 

 

 

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