Edmonton city council is considering covering hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of city services for local festivals after organizers warned the future of their events are in the balance.
City bills for things like police, transportation, permits and other services have risen dramatically for some city festivals over the last several years.
“We can’t be expected to sustain those costs as a city, nor can the festivals,” said Mayor Don Iveson at a community services committee meeting Monday.
Councillors proposed creation of a new grant, to cover 50 per cent of the cost of city services for festivals that need it. City administration will now study the possibility for several months.
Jim Gibbon, executive director of the Servus Heritage Festival, said his festival paid $3,000 for city services in 2004. This year he expects to pay closer to $300,000.
“It’s actually a scary number this year it’s so big,” Gibbon said. “The question is, where do you get that money from?”
Calgary covers 90 per cent of civic costs for major festivals. But Gibbon said even a 50-per-cent boost would help.
His festival has been hardest hit with city fees, a 78-per-cent increase over the last two years alone. But other festivals are suffering as well. The future of the Pride Festival is up in the air, as organizers say they aren’t sure how they’re going to pay for the city services required to stage the event.
The Pride Parade may not be able continue if city charges continue to rise as they have for the last several years, according to executive director Angela Bennett. (Edmonton Pride Festival/ Instagram)
Festivals like those, which don’t charge admission or have alcohol sales, are in a particularly vulnerable situation, as there are few ways for them to compensate for the growing costs imposed by the city.
Police costs alone account for much of the increase. Officers charge double time to cover an event, and the force charges an additional 30-per-cent markup to festivals to cover administrative costs.
Meanwhile, grants to festivals from the Edmonton Arts Council, which are paid by the city, have not risen at the same rate.
A city report on the new grant is expected to be ready for council by late 2016. But Pride Festival executive director Angela Bennett said she needs some certainty by November if the festival is to be saved.
City covers all civic costs for K-Days
Bennett said she expects there to be a “huge uproar” if the pride parade is cancelled because of growing city bills.
The Pride parade and other culturally significant events should be given “civic designation,” which means the city would pay for all the city services because the events benefit the city as a whole, Bennett suggested.
The city pays all its own costs to stage the K-Days parade.
Bennett said significant non-profit events are being hit hardest, and those are the ones that the city should be embracing.
Council will vote on the plan to help local festivals at the end of the year. Iveson said council will also consider a rebate for 2016 festivals, to retroactively cover some of this year’s costs.