Whistler’s older adults have spent decades building the resort’s community fabric. Now, a local coalition is working to make sure they don’t have to leave their homes behind as they age.

The Mature Action Community (MAC) and the Whistler Elders Enrichment (WEE) Society have launched a campaign to raise $12,500 to fund a professional study on seniors’ housing and recreation needs in Whistler. The study, to be carried out by Burnaby’s Lumina Services, will quantify the demand for independent and supportive housing and assess what “aging in place” can realistically look like in a resort town.

The Whistler Blackcomb Foundation (WBF) has contributed $5,000 toward the first two phases of the project—enough to get the work started this fall.

‘So people don’t have to leave their community’

For longtime MAC volunteer Anne Townley, the project evolved from conversations that had been ongoing for years.

“There’s an increasing number of people that have been in our community for 30, 40, 50 years,” she said. “They’ve helped build the community, but they get to a certain stage and they can’t manage in their own home anymore. If they can’t stay in their own home, and need more support, they have to leave our community.”

Townley said amenities for seniors in Whistler “aren’t here the way they are in other communities.” She added that nearby examples, including Squamish’s Westwinds facility and Villas Housing in Pemberton, show what’s possible.

But for Whistler, before any policy moves take place, she recognizes they need hard data on seniors’ needs in the resort municipality.

“As much as we think this is needed, we also need to do a study to give us numbers in order to say, ‘this is what actually is needed, and this is what would work,’” Townley said.

What the study will do

Under Lumina’s proposal, Phase 1 will gather demographic and market data, followed by focus groups with Whistler residents to learn what older adults actually want and need in Phase 2. Phase 3, if warranted by the findings in the first two phases, would evaluate financial feasibility and identify potential funding streams.

“The first part would be looking at all the demographics, the projected demographics, what is actually in the community,” Townley explained. “Then they’ll be doing focus groups to get a sense of what people living here think is needed and what they are personally looking for.”

Lumina, led by consultant Kate Mancer, has worked with municipalities from Bowen Island to Texada. Mancer wrote the book on building and operating seniors housing projects.

Townley expects the first two phases to wrap by year-end 2025, with focus-group recruitment beginning “as soon as possible.”

Although organizers have secured roughly half of the initial budget, they need the remaining balance before the final report is delivered.

Why the partnership with WEE matters

Because MAC lacks charitable status, Townley sought out the Whistler Elders Enrichment Society to serve as fiscal partner.

WEE president Wendy Barber said the society itself was created precisely to keep local fundraising dollars working for Whistler seniors.

“We were raising money for Alzheimer’s and never got any money back to Whistler,” Barber said. “So we decided to create our own society to keep the fundraising money in Whistler for Whistler seniors.”

WEE obtained charitable status earlier this year, enabling donors to receive tax receipts.

While MAC’s focus is on housing and supportive-living options, WEE is pushing for a permanent, accessible seniors’ centre—something Whistler currently lacks.

“We don’t have a permanent space for seniors to gather,” Barber said. “We go between the Racket Club, the library, Spruce Grove Field House … it can be difficult for people to remember where each activity is happening and to keep moving between spots. We need a permanent, safe, accessible space.”

Barber hopes the Lumina data will bolster the case for such a facility. She also stressed that Whistler’s seniors are integral to the resort’s volunteer engine; they’re the mountain and village hosts, event volunteers and longtime locals who “keep the community running.”

“If they had to pay all those seniors for all their volunteer time, that’s a lot of money,” she said. “The least they could do is provide a space.”

Foundation support

The Whistler Blackcomb Foundation’s $5,000 contribution will help launch the study immediately. Executive director Mei Madden said the Foundation has seen rising demand for seniors’ services across the Sea to Sky.

“We have definitely seen a lot more requests for seniors-support services [and] we felt that an independent study was definitely needed to help better understand what aging in place can truly look like here,” Madden said.

Statistics shared with the Foundation suggest residents aged 55 and over already represent roughly 25 per cent of Whistler’s population, a figure projected to rise to 33 per cent within five years, she added.

“It’s heartbreaking to think that due to a lack of local supports, many may be forced to move away,” Madden said. “We believe it would be a significant loss to our community to lose not just their presence, but their living history.”

Why aging in place is so hard in resort towns

The need in Whistler reflects broader provincial trends.

The B.C. Office of the Seniors Advocate reports that 60 per cent of seniors entering long-term care had received no home support in the preceding 90 days, and that many communities—especially rural or resort-based—lack accessible housing, home-care options or transportation links.

Whistler’s own Age-Friendly Assessment and Action Plan found that nearly 60 per cent of older residents said their homes were not accessible or would not allow them to age in place, and that supportive housing options were “scarce or difficult to access.” For many retirees on fixed incomes, high housing costs and limited service infrastructure make staying put unsustainable.

Barber has seen that first-hand.

“Everybody thinks the seniors that live in Whistler are uber-wealthy, but they’re not,” she said. “Some of them might have big homes, but they pay huge taxes and now they’re on a fixed income. Even they’re getting pushed out financially and physically because they can’t keep up their big homes.”

Next steps

Townley said Lumina’s focus groups should begin in early December, with results expected by year-end. The data will be shared with the Resort Municipality of Whistler, Vancouver Coastal Health and potential developers to explore next steps.

“Once we get the data, we can go back to Vancouver Coastal and the [Resort Municipality of Whistler] and say, ‘Here’s what this says,’” she said. “The first step is to gather the data to say, ‘This is what the needs are.’”

Donations can be made by e-transfer to WEE at whistlerelders@gmail.com. Donations above $20 will receive a tax receipt in return.

For Townley, the goal is simple.

“I would be really happy if a friend I knew really needed more supportive housing and they were able to stay in this community,” she said. “And not have to leave their community of a long time that they have helped build.”