introducing a motion<\/a> to boost that funding from two sources.<\/p>\n\u201cThe reality is we\u2019re a capital city, we have a high degree of expectation from our community that we will have a notable celebration for Canada Day,\u201d Alto said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think particularly in these times, there\u2019s a highly developed and I think more than in recent years, sense of wanting to celebrate who we are as Canadians.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first funding source would be using $100,000 from Victoria\u2019s Major Community Initiatives and Event Grant (MCIEG).<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The second is seeking funding from the provincial government.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to be asking the provincial government to match or at least contribute to the cost of Canada Day,\u201d Alto said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOther provincial governments do support their capital city\u2019s Canada Day celebrations. As part of the Canadian Capital Cities Organization, we\u2019re aware that this is more common than not.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t believe, certainly in my memory, that hasn\u2019t been the case provincially, so we\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport says it recognizes the importance of Canada Day events for communities to come together.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a request is submitted, it will be reviewed against existing program criteria, as is standard for all event\u2011related funding proposals,\u201d the ministry said in a statement to CHEK News. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe ministry offers event funding through the BC Arts Council, Creative BC, Destination Events Program and Community Gaming Grants.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the current budget of $110,800 is all that is given for the celebrations, Alto says it will be a \u201cfairly minimal\u201d event, and it could include cancelling the fireworks.<\/p>\n
Even with the extra $100,000, Alto says it will be a \u201cscaled down version.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if we can add $100,000 from the Major Community Initiatives and Events Grant fund, at least, we\u2019ll have a bit of a fighting chance to do something really noticeably celebratory,\u201d Alto said.<\/p>\n
Greater Victoria Festival Society thinks funding should be spread out<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe weren\u2019t 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,\u201d Kurta said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re consistently told that there\u2019s no additional funding for our organizations, so it raises the question about how funding priorities are being set,\u201d Kurta said.<\/p>\n
Last year the GVFS put in an application for funding through the MCIEG but was denied by the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s 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,\u201d Kurta said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf 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\u2019t mean bigger festivals, it just means more resilient, more sustainable ones.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victoria has only set aside a quarter of last year\u2019s budget for the upcoming Canada Day celebrations, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-447032","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}