Victoria has only set aside a quarter of last year’s budget for the upcoming Canada Day celebrations, and is now looking for more funding to boost the event.

Last year, the city spent more than $400,000 on Canada Day. For 2026, the draft budget currently has $110,800 set aside.

Mayor Marianne Alto and Coun. Jeremy Caradonna are introducing a motion to boost that funding from two sources.

“The reality is we’re a capital city, we have a high degree of expectation from our community that we will have a notable celebration for Canada Day,” Alto said.

“I think particularly in these times, there’s a highly developed and I think more than in recent years, sense of wanting to celebrate who we are as Canadians.”

The first funding source would be using $100,000 from Victoria’s Major Community Initiatives and Event Grant (MCIEG).

The MCIEG supports initiatives and events in the city, and currently has $100,000 unspoken for. If this funding is approved for Canada Day, there would be no unallocated funds if more projects were to come forward to seek funding.

The second is seeking funding from the provincial government.

“We’re going to be asking the provincial government to match or at least contribute to the cost of Canada Day,” Alto said.

“Other provincial governments do support their capital city’s Canada Day celebrations. As part of the Canadian Capital Cities Organization, we’re aware that this is more common than not.”

“I don’t believe, certainly in my memory, that hasn’t been the case provincially, so we’re going to ask the provincial government to recognize their part in celebrating being Canadian in the capital city of British Columbia and participate by way of providing some additional resources.”

CHEK News has asked Alto and a city spokesperson to provide a list of provinces that contribute to the capital city celebrations, and will update if one is received.

The Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport says it recognizes the importance of Canada Day events for communities to come together.

“If a request is submitted, it will be reviewed against existing program criteria, as is standard for all event‑related funding proposals,” the ministry said in a statement to CHEK News.

“The ministry offers event funding through the BC Arts Council, Creative BC, Destination Events Program and Community Gaming Grants.”

If the current budget of $110,800 is all that is given for the celebrations, Alto says it will be a “fairly minimal” event, and it could include cancelling the fireworks.

Even with the extra $100,000, Alto says it will be a “scaled down version.”

“But if we can add $100,000 from the Major Community Initiatives and Events Grant fund, at least, we’ll have a bit of a fighting chance to do something really noticeably celebratory,” Alto said.

Greater Victoria Festival Society thinks funding should be spread out

Kelly Kurta, executive director of the Greater Victoria Festival Society, says she would like to see some of the remaining money in the MCIEG distributed across multiple community events.

“We weren’t aware that there was any funding left in the MCIEG funding budget and our entire annual operating budget for multiple major free festivals is close to the additional funding being requested for a single event,” Kurta said.

The GVFS puts on the annual Victoria Day and Santa Claus parades, and she says that some of the $100,000 could support its events, as well as other free community events through other organizations.

“We’re consistently told that there’s no additional funding for our organizations, so it raises the question about how funding priorities are being set,” Kurta said.

Last year the GVFS put in an application for funding through the MCIEG but was denied by the city.

“It’s getting tougher and tougher to put on our free festivals, and I just feel like the I just feel like it would be more fiscally responsible to spread the allocation out a bit further,” Kurta said.

“If our non-profit organizations were given greater consideration, even just modest increases, would allow us to invest in more enhanced safety equipment, logistics, trained personnel, just the same standards that you expect at your event. So better funding doesn’t mean bigger festivals, it just means more resilient, more sustainable ones.”