Canada Day party budget may reach $285,100
As the city gets set to host one of its biggest Canada Day celebrations
As the city gets set to host one of its biggest Canada Day celebrations marking the country’s 150 birthday, the event’s budget is expected to balloon to $285,100.
That’s thanks to another $50,000 grant from Heritage Canada.
Doug Hnatiuk, the city’s manager of parks and community development, brought forward a recommendation last Tuesday night that council vote to amend the Canada Day budget.
The change would see the city accept the grant and waive the bidding process in finding a headliner act for the event set for Shipyards Park on July 1.
This marks the second federal grant the city has received for Canada Day, with the first $175,000 coming from the Canada 150 fund. The other $60,100 budgeted is expected to come from event sponsors.
As Hnatiuk stated in his report to council: “Funding for the Canada Day 150 project was approved in the 2017 capital budget, and supplemental grant funding has now been secured through Canadian Heritage.
“The contribution agreement with Canadian Heritage also requires the city to obtain a nationally recognized Canadian headliner act that will perform on the main stage at the Whitehorse Canada Day Festival.”
To meet that requirement for a headliner in time for the July 1 event, Hnatiuk said the city will need to waive the bidding process in finding a performer or performers.
“Generally, it is an industry standard to sole-source headliner acts for large-scale events,” he noted in his report.
“The city’s purchasing and sales policy requires a council resolution to waive the bidding process for this to occur.”
He pointed out that Whitehorse is the only city left of the 20 to receive federal grant funding to host major Canada Day events that has not yet secured a headliner.
While he would not say exactly which acts are being considered, he did note there is a possibility of a Juno Award winner taking to the Whitehorse stage.
Coun. Samson Hartland once again highlighted his distaste for sole-source contracts.
He noted in this case, however, that he understands the need to move ahead and waive the bid process.
Council will vote on the recommendation this evening.
Coun. Rob Fendrick was absent from last Tuesday’s meeting.
Comments (5)
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Supplies! on Apr 29, 2017 at 10:31 pm
This is our 150th birthday party. That's pretty special when you consider how many times we could have been split up along some line or another but, here we are together after 150 years. That's pretty special!
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CJ while you... on Apr 25, 2017 at 3:38 pm
...are pulling your head out of the sand understand that to have a warm and fuzzy feeling you don't need to spend gobs of money to do so. We can still have a party but scaled to fit the realities of the world we live in. Apparently you may believe that money in fact does grow on trees. Unfortunately the tree is dying from so much harvesting, but I suspect you likely won't see that.
This is not about employing people (who are getting paid by me and other tax payers) but about the real world. Government, at any level, does not have the inherent right (as some believe) to spend like there is no tomorrow.
As for being patriotic. I crossed that bridge many years in serving my country for 20 years - did you?
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CJ on Apr 25, 2017 at 10:54 am
The Centennial year 1967 is a great memory for me, with lots of activities for school kids, funds going towards buildings and parks (which I only realized later as they were named that), really vivid messages, reinforced in school, about multiculturalism and bilingualism. I know it sounds hokey, but there really was pride about being Canadian that came out of that. I was pretty young, too, which tells me the effort was masterful. And believe it or not, there wasn't a dismissal of the same issues of poverty and racism that still plague us. But you can hold more than two thoughts in your head at the same time.
This year so much whining..."it's not our country", "costs so much" yada yada yada. Some people would seem to be happier if the main feelings we attached to this year's celebrations were shame and resentment.
And apparently, austerity. These events employ people, boys. They buy stuff from local suppliers. And back in the day they constructed infrastructure.
Of course, now we don't need an overarching reason to spend millions on a building dedicated to a few employees at the city... but that's another story.
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Oops Tater... on Apr 24, 2017 at 3:53 pm
...it is not 30 million but 50 billion by 2019 !!! Even worse. Yes it is a waste of money and can be better spent on more meaningful items.
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Tater on Apr 24, 2017 at 3:28 pm
So, $285,000 while we have a $30,000,000 increase to the national debt. And that debt will have to be paid by robbing the income of our children and grandchildren.