Is everyone in Whistler thriving? Not exactly, according to latest Vital Signs report

For most, life in Whistler presents unique challenges. But what exactly are these challenges and how bad are they really?

In short, that’s what the Whistler Community Foundation (WCF) is trying to define in its latest Vital Signs Report, a 13-page document officially released to the public on Friday, March 3rd.

The annual Vital Signs report acts as a “community check-up,” or snapshot, drawing on robust datasets from multiple sources to paint as complete a picture as possible of how Whistler is doing overall. Vital Signs is a global program designed to transform community knowledge into positive local impact. It started in 2001 as an initiative of the Toronto Foundation.

In addition to providing a high-level overview of the demographics of the Whistler community, this year’s report attempted to answer three distinct questions: Does Whistler have a sustainable future? Is our community worth living in? And finally, is everyone okay?

The data was compiled over the past year from sources including Statistics Canada, the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) and local nonprofits, WCF executive director Claire Mozes said. This year’s report is particularly important given that the 2021 census data is available from Statistics Canada, she said. It was the first full census since 2016.

“It’s a combination of looking at the data and then asking about what’s actually happening in Whistler — what are we hearing? What do we see? — and then really start narrowing the data down,” she said.

The report touches on a variety of issues ranging from transit, mental health services and access to childcare to crime rates, greenhouse gas emissions and affordable housing, to name a few. But figuring out which of the three questions to assign those records to was no easy task.

“Everything is so intersectional,” Mozes explained. “It’s really impossible to think of something like mental health and then not connect it to things like affordability or living conditions like housing. We really realized that there was a lot of overlap between the themes…everything is very connected.”

Do Whistlerites earn a living wage?

The Vital Signs report defines a living wage as the hourly rate required to live a “bare” life — say, room for an emergency fund, but none for loan or interest payments, retirement savings, home ownership, or many additional expenses over the livelihood beyond.

According to a 2019 presentation by RMOW’s economic development team, Whistler’s living wage this year was set at $25.37 per hour per adult working 35 hours per week, 52 weeks a year, based on a two-income family and two children.

That number hasn’t been updated since before the pandemic, but if Whistler’s living wage estimate had grown at a similar pace to Vancouver, it would represent a 17.3 percent increase over last year, at an estimated hourly rate of 30.18 USD per adult, according to the report.

In 2020, women in Whistler earned a median annual wage of $41,200, or about $22.64 per hour, while local men earned a median combined income of $47,600, or $26.15 per hour. About 56 percent of Whistler’s 13,983 residents took home combined annual income of $50,000 or less, or $27 an hour based on a 35-hour week, as of 2021.

Given these numbers, a key theme that surfaced throughout the report was the increasing reliance of Whistlerites on community services in recent years.

The Whistler Food Bank, for example, had a record 9,365 visits in 2021, compared to 5,782 in 2020; 3,005 in 2019; and 2,773 in 2018. Whistler Community Services Society outreach services hit an all-time high in 2021 with 6,128 visitors seeking spiritual and emotional support, compared to 4,922 in 2020; 3,233 in 2019; and 2,040 in 2018.

“That’s huge,” Mozes said, noting that the number of outreach visits doubles about every two years.

WHAT ABOUT APARTMENT?

The Vital Signs report found that for a BC household with a combined income of $100,000, the purchase price for an affordable home would be approximately $201,938.

Not only is that in stark contrast to the sky-high median purchase prices for market housing in Whistler in 2021 ($3.3 million for a single-family home, $1.306 million for a townhouse, and $770,000 for an apartment), but also to the Whistler Housing Authority (WHA) also sales prices.

The average WHA resale price in 2022 was $276,326, while prices for a newly built two-bedroom WHA condo ranged from $405,000 to $460,000, according to the Vital Signs report.

As for rent, the WHA has set the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom unit occupied by a couple or single person with a combined household income of $60,000 at $1,500, which according to Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation is an affordable rate for this income level as long as non-housing expenses can be kept below $2,000.

“It just puts into perspective how little some people make compared to the actual cost of things like housing,” Mozes said. “Even with affordable ones [options]and programs that have done a fantastic job of accommodating so many employees is still out of reach for people.”

WHAT’S NEXT?

What are Whistler’s next steps given the wage versus affordability gap clearly laid out in the Vital Signs report?

“I don’t have an answer,” Mozes said. “We’re not creating any programs from this document, but we definitely hope it will lead to conversations at different levels…whether local or provincial or even federal, there may be an opportunity to look at some of these statistics and think about the lived experience.” of people and then try to find solutions, or at least continue to support things that work, or move away from things that don’t work as much as possible.

“There’s no magical answer in here, that’s for sure.”

However, the Vital Signs report helps identify some of the larger issues impacting Whistler’s community, which in turn will play a role in WCF’s decision on where to direct its funding, Mozes explained.

As the WCF is now accepting applications for its spring grant cycle, “we hope nonprofits and charities will take advantage of it [report] as a tool to see if they were already programming something, or if they could code something that would help support and positively impact the well-being of the community,” she said.

This year’s Vital Signs report can be found at whistlerfoundation.com/work/vital-signs.