A policy is now in place to govern how the city will hand out cash to support certain types of St. Albert festivals.
During the 2016 budget debate, council added annual funding for a family pop culture/comic festival, a family music festival and a family artist program.
The move was at the suggestion of Mayor Nolan Crouse as a nearly $200,000 fund that’s been used to fund such festivals for the past couple of years is nearly depleted.
On Tuesday, council approved a proposed policy after voting on several amendments.
Festivals selected for funding will receive support for up to five years, with the amount of money available decreasing each year.
There are already recently established festivals that could potentially qualify for these grants, like Eek! Comic and Pop Culture Fest, Night of Artists and Seven Music Festival. Those festivals have previously received funding from the now mostly-depleted Community Significant Event Stimulus Fund and fit the specified festival categories, though it is not guaranteed those would be the selected applicants.
Council tweaks to the policy included moving grant and application approval to council rather than the city manager. There were other changes as well.
Some attempted amendments, however, did not pass. Suggestions to shorten the time commitment to each festival and to eliminate individuals or businesses from being able to apply failed to garner a majority of votes.
Coun. Cathy Heron argued in favour of giving festivals time to establish themselves and become self-sustaining.
“I absolutely agree we need to give these festivals at least a five-year commitment,” she said.
Coun. Sheena Hughes was less eager to give such a long-term commitment, initially arguing for a one year period and then for a three-year term.
“I really don’t feel comfortable with giving an organization five years,” she said.
Coun. Bob Russell had wanted to change the policy so that only community organizations could apply and remove language that said the event could be organized and managed by an individual or business as well as a community organization.
He said such a move would take it out of the hands of someone who might just be organizing a festival as a “moneymaking operation” and show some community support.
Others suggested the term community organization was too ambiguous. Heron said she thinks council needs to allow individuals to do something “whether it’s for profit or not,” noting it can take some time for such festivals to become profitable.
Ultimately, council offered its stamp of approval for the amended policy in a 6-1 vote.
“These are really some of the events that make St. Albert great,” said Coun. Tim Osborne. “I think it’s important we’re thankful that we have the people in our community who bring these forward.”
The policy also means that the Community Significant Stimulus Fund might not be dead quite yet, as any surplus funds will be used to help bump that account up, offering support for other community events.
