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Renter and Landlords: What you need to know about fire safety
By gplayfair on Jun 02 2010, last modified on Jun 02 2010.
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Many of us in Whistler rent in less than perfect circumstances, accepting compromised housing in trade for a lifestyle that we wouldn't trade.

A few of us in Whistler rent space to others. Many are fair landlords, some push the envelop or go beyond what is safe or even legal in terms of providing Code compliant rental property.

At worst, this is a fire hazard. I know, I see the worst in Valley accommodation and I see it often. I'm the Assistant Fire Chief in Whistler. We follow up on problems were we can, generally through complaints, which are often lodged by the tenant, but only after they have moved out. In other words, they accepted the risk while they rented.

In these situations, the tenant is generally one of our younger, seasonal population. This makes them at the same time the most vulnerable and also the hardest to reach out to with messaging. I hope this site will help.

www.knowfire.ca is a site that has excellent background information for both renters and landlords. It's Ontario based. but very applicable here in Whistler. Check it out, particularly if you've ever wondered how safe you would be if a fire started in your place.

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Information about "mu".

I wonder if Whistler could offer a bit more education for all the temporary residents we get. We get a lot of new people in town every October/November, many of these people are young and inexperienced, many of them haven't spent a lot of time on their own. Sounds a lot like what I saw every September when I was in university; we even get a pile of burnouts disappearing every January.

Are there any orientation programs in this town? We are similar to a university town in many ways so there should be lots of examples to build on. A quick rundown on housing (including fire issues), bears, eating healthy on the cheap, the general layout of the town, and similar things would probably save a lot of grief.

Whistler depends on our own version of migrant workers, helping them and taking care of them are probably good ideas.
Information about "rachael".

You have a good point.

There are certain events and so on that provide this information to our new-comers every year such as the Jill Ackhurst Welcome Dinner (although this is mainly Whistler Blackcomb staff), the Survival Guide put out by Whistler Community Services and a great source of information but you have to know it exists, and then there is the Spirit course for those that get the Spirit pass which educates participants in all these issues as well as about Whistler.

However I think there is a need for a program that reaches everyone as not everyone knows about or is involved with the above. Not sure what...

Social Media, though, could certainly help with this one in a HUGE way!
Information about "gplayfair".

Thanks very much for the comments, Rachael (and mu).This input has been very helpful and encouraging.

We used to do a display at the old Spirit Days when they were at the Conference Centre, but that forum fell apart.

Interesting that we never picked up on the Survival Guide or the Welcome Breakfast which we actually host at the Fire Hall each year, but have never tried to educate, just hosted the breakfast - a missed opportunity to be sure.

I look forward to hearing from anyone else that would like to add to the dialogue.
Information about "mu".

Has anyone ever considered an online wiki-ish version of the survival guide? Such a thing would have to be done without the muni's involvement, city hall is too concerned with image control and they're about as tech-savvy as a rock (e.g. the whister.ca RSS feed has been broken since the last election).
Information about "rachael".

Ha ha, too funny!

Great idea on the wiki-ish version. I've had plenty of this experience since living here........
Information about "mu".

Know anyone at WCSS [mywcss.org] ? They do the survival guide and an online wiki version would probably be within their mandate; I don't know how independent or modern WCSS is though.

MediaWiki [mediawiki.org] (the software behind Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] ) is free, they'd just need somewhere to host it. Wikia [wikia.com] does MediaWiki hosting, maybe something like this San Francisco [wikia.com] wiki would be a good starting point. Someone would have to handle the marketing and editing though.

Maybe, after a couple years of this sort of thing, the muni will realize that it is 2010 (and then they'll only be a couple years behind!), the internet matters, and they'll open up their data [vancouver.ca] for the tax payers to see and mash up. Hey, maybe eventually someone in the muni's IT department will figure out what RSS is fix their site.
Information about "caroline".

This isn't about battling with the muni. We're one community and need to find ways in which we can affectively collaborate - so let's stop the negativity here.

That said, it's a GREAT idea! Would actually be very easy to create a wiki for WCSS [mywcss.org] using the same software we've developed that's behind Whistler Citizen. [whistlercitizen.com] I'll make a couple of calls.

Thinking this should be incorporated within the new OCP (official community plan).
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