qathet Regional District’s finance committee will delay a decision on a request for funding from the Townsite Jazz Festival.
At the January 22 committee meeting, directors wrestled with the amount of money to allocate to the festival, as well as the source of the funds if the grant goes through.
Electoral Area C director Clay Brander said the proposal was to be paid out of the economic development budget and he doesn’t see a whole lot of difference between this and Powell River Festival of the Performing Arts, which comes out of the regional district’s grant-in-aid budget.
He also said the jazz festival was asking for a significant amount of $7,500. Festival of the performing arts asked for $750.
“I would prefer to have some level of consistency established,” said Brander. He suggested bringing down the amount of the allocation, and that it come out of grants-in-aid.
Chief administrative officer Al Radke said staff struggles with applications in terms of which fund to take the request out of.
“Hopefully, the future discussions around the grant-in-aid program will answer the struggle that staff has over whether it should be a grant-in-aid or come from economic development,” said Radke.
Brander said he supports the arts festivals in town. He added that he prefers going through grants-in-aid and giving organizations a bit of time to get an event off the ground. He said he thinks eventually, these kinds of programs should be more self-supporting, so the regional district can step back and provide funds to other new programs that come up.
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne asked how much the regional district gave Townsite Jazz Festival last year.
Manager of financial services Linda Greenan said in 2019, the regional district provided $5,000, as it did in 2018.
Electoral Area D director Sandy McCormick said she sees the jazz festival as an economic development event.
Committee chair George Doubt said he had the same concerns about issues of grant-in-aid and economic development. He said this is the time of year when the board is dealing with these matters.
“I’m of the mind that we be consistent with what we’ve done in the past, which is granting grants like this particular one through the economic development grant process,” said Doubt. “We can go ahead and do the review of how we are going to handle those grants in the future.”
Brander said by using that argument, any festival should be in the economic development category. He said, however, with larger events such as PRISMA and International Choral Kathaumixw, they have come back with evidence showing economic development, and that puts them into a different category than some of these smaller festivals.
McCormick said she was trying to wrap her head around why the amount had risen from $5,000 to $7,500.
Greenan said the recommendation was based upon the request that had been made by the Townsite Jazz Festival.
Gisborne said he had issues with the increase of $5,000 to $7,500.
“I do agree that these organizations should become self-sufficient,” he said. “Taking a look at the previous one we approved for the Powell River Festival of the Performing Arts, they are only asking for $750. I think $7,500 is a lot of money, especially since last year we gave them $5,000.”
Gisborne proposed an amendment to reduce the $7,500 recommendation to $5,000, but the amendment was not seconded.
City director CaroleAnn Leishman said she could not speak to the increase that has been requested, but she could certainly try to find out. She said, however, comparing the jazz festival to the festival of the performing arts was comparing apples to oranges.
“They are two different scenarios,” she said. “I will certainly try to encourage the Townsite Jazz Festival to maybe let us know what the increases are.”
McCormick moved to postpone a decision on the matter until the February finance committee meeting so the jazz festival can specify what the increased ask is for.
“I’m not saying it’s not justified but I’d like to know what it’s for before approving the additional revenue,” she said.
The finance committee carried the motion.
