Richmond city council is unsure if it wants to dole out $1.38 million for festivals next year.
Council was dealing with a proposal from the Major Events Advisory Group that would continue funding large festivals like the Richmond World Festival and the Richmond Maritime Festival, on the same par as this year, but several councillors, including those on the advisory group, spoke against the high costs.
Coun. Carol Day said she would like to see the events dialled back and made more community based, for example, involving the faith community on Highway to Heaven in the World Festival and using local, free talent.
“It would make it a richer experience for all these events,” she said. She added that only the neighbourhood grants programs, the Salmon Festival and the Doors Open events are local events.
Mayor Malcolm Brodie, however, questioned whether it was fair not to pay musicians even if they’re local.
“You want local performers instead of paid performers but people are professional performers, is it fair to say you shouldn’t get paid?” Brodie said. “Why are we taking advantage of them that way?”
The highest cost events are the two-day Richmond World Festival at $400,000 plus $150,000 in sponsorship, the Steveston Salmon Festival at $250,000 plus $105,000 in sponsorship and the Richmond Maritime Festival at $300,000 with $95,000 in sponsorship money.
Coun. Kelly Greene said she was “astonished” at the budget, saying it was 82 per cent more than Burnaby spends and 164 per cent more than Coquitlam spends on equivalent events.
“I think what we’re doing is out of whack,” she said, also suggesting the events should be dialled back.
Coun. Harold Steves, who was on the committee but said at the meeting he didn’t want to continue being part of it, said since the Olympics, festivals in Richmond have gone from zero to $1.5 million in cost. He suggested cutting the budgets in half and spending $670,000 for next year’s festivals.
Steves also criticized the budget of the Maritime Festival at $300,000 when the city hasn’t spent money repairing the Britannia Shipyards building for many years.
“Why do we want to put on a maritime festival when the maritime facility is not finished and has been sitting in limbo for the last 20 years,” he said.
Coun. Bill McNulty pointed out the money being spent on the festivals is taxpayers’ money, adding he wanted to see an evaluation of every event. He said council was going to evaluate Farm Fest after this year, and yet this proposal was asking council to approve next year’s Farm Fest.
“I have trouble putting a rubber stamp on $1.345 million (…) when we have a tax increase of 4.82 per cent,“ McNulty said.
Coun. Linda McPhail said she was puzzled at what happened at the advisory group and she suggested the mayor look at the composition of that committee “because I don’t think it’s working correctly.”
Coun. Alexa Loo pointed out that the advisory group members, who brought the recommendation to the general purposes meeting, were now not supporting it.
“It got hashed out, and drilled down and sent back to staff and back and forth and we had further meetings, after we got down to some numbers that were amenable to the people on the committee – and now they’re putting it forward and now they’re ready to vote against it,” Loo said.
Brodie said the children’s arts festival was well attended and other events highlight what Richmond is known for, for example, the salmon festival, the celebration of maritime history and Richmond’s agricultural background at Farm Fest as well as the cultural aspects celebrated at World Festival.
“When I look at this list, I think these are very, very good events,” he said, adding there are many reasons to put on these events, for example, the economic benefit.
However, he added he was also “perplexed” that the advisory group brought the recommendation forward but didn’t necessarily support it.
The 2015 inaugural Richmond World Festival was recognized as the Best Public Entertainment Event in Canada by the Canadian Event Industry Awards. This year it was also nominated as Best Festival in Canada.
Several councillors asked for impact reports, but staff said the economic impact is “anecdotal.” Exit surveys at the Maritime Festival and the World Festival in 2018 gave a 94 per cent rating as very good to excellent.
Council voted to send the report back to staff to re-evaluate the events and budgets.
