Agenda Index City of Vancouver

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

TO:

Standing Committee on Planning and Environment

FROM:

Director, Office of Cultural Affairs

SUBJECT:

City Support for Festivals and Celebrations - Policy Review & Recommendations

 

RECOMMENDATIONS

If Council approves Recommendation C, staff also recommend:

CITY MANAGER'S COMMENTS

COUNCIL POLICY

The following Council policies relate to City support for festivals and special events:

1) Grants - Office of Cultural Affairs

The Cultural grant programs established by Council on March 7, 1978 provide for grants to not-for-profit cultural organizations that produce arts and cultural festivals and celebrations. Grant requests are administered by the Office of Cultural Affairs and evaluated on the basis of Council-approved criteria.
Over the past 20 years, Council has approved a number of policies in response to ad hoc requests for assistance with special events through the "Other" grants category. The scope of these policies is limited, and they do not provide comprehensive criteria for addressing requests for assistance with special events outside the mandate of the Cultural Grants program.

2) Civic sites and services - FEST Committee

Festivals and special events that take place in City streets and parks are co-ordinated by the Film and Special Events offices in Engineering and Parks. Large-scale events are co-ordinated through the FEST Committee. Events are not charged for the use of streets and park spaces, but the City's police and engineering services are charged on a cost-recovery basis. As approved by Council on September 25, 1984, the City waives these costs for Council-designated "Civic Events" (originally called "City-Wide Events").

Non-designated events processed through the FEST committee may receive assistance for the first $500 of police services, with the organizers responsible for the balance at recovery cost. The Parks Board provides most of its services and staff assistance for free, but any inspections are charged at recovery cost.

PURPOSE

This is the first of two reports prepared in response to Council's March 8, 2001 resolution that "Staff review existing policy and practice with respect to `civic' events, as well as annual and other special events, and report back with policy options and budget implications."

This report, prepared by the Office of Cultural Affairs, reviews the City's past and current role in developing and supporting festivals and celebrations, recommends policy directions and civic support strategies, and identifies the resources these strategies would require.

A second report, prepared by Film and Special Events Office and FEST Committee staff, will review and make recommendations on City policies and issues related to the City's role as a regulator and provider of police and engineering services for public events. This report is anticipated in January 2003.

SUMMARY

Like Vancouver, many cities have set up programs to develop and support festivals and celebrations, recognizing their potential for generating economic activity, enriching the quality of life for residents, and showcasing their city. Cities assist festive events through grants, free or at-cost services, and/or the direct delivery of events. Grants are a cost-effective way to achieve civic objectives and lever support from other sources. The provision of civic services is a great help to event organizers, but can be an expensive contribution whose full costs are hard to assess. The direct delivery of festivals requires a major investment of civic resources. It is more cost-effective for cities to address civic priorities for festivals through community partnerships.

The City of Vancouver's approach to supporting festive events has shifted from its early initiating and producing role to a facilitating and funding role. Current City mechanisms for supporting the development of festivals and celebrations are limited. The Cultural Grants budget has not kept pace with growth in professional arts festivals. Most community-based events are ineligible for funding. Police and engineering service costs have risen, but the standard offset grant has remained at the $500 level since 1984.

The potential now exists for the City to selectively build on its long-term investment in festivals and celebrations. The number of events in the city, and community interest in them, has grown. Moreover, the 2010 Olympic bid and new Federal Government grant programs offer the City opportunities to leverage funds for festivals and celebrations.
This report recommends strategies to enhance the profile and role of festive events in our community, as well as their capacity to generate economic activity. As presented in Appendix A, these recommendations are made in the context of a comprehensive policy framework, targeting support for different types of events to optimize its effectiveness.

City Services: Staff will be reviewing this area in a report by Film and Special Events Office. Cultural Affairs staff note that the City's use of an offsetting grant for police costs is an efficient mechanism for assisting a wide variety of special events and do not propose a new type of grant to cover police and engineering costs.

Professional Arts Festivals: Since 1990, City funding for arts festivals has decreased as demands on the operating and project components of Cultural Grants budget have grown in response to growth in the not-for-profit arts sector. Increased funding for festivals would help strengthen existing events and support new activity, but it is most appropriately discussed in the context of the Cultural Grants budget as a whole when the 2003 budget is considered.

Community-based Festivals and Celebrations: Many festive events in Vancouver, including various ethno-cultural celebrations, could benefit from investment to enhance their scale, program content and city-wide outreach. Staff propose that up to $75,000 be allocated for "Celebration" grants for community-based festivals and celebrations.

Special Initiatives: There are times during the year and dates special to Vancouver residents that are short on festivals and celebrations. The city lacks both a "signature event" differentiating it from other cities, and a mechanism for hosting or helping to enhance one-time celebrations or festivals.

To address these gaps and to help enhance existing celebrations, staff recommend that the City adopt a mechanism for considering a limited number of requests for "Opportunity" grants to assist with three types of special initiatives, subject to matching funds: (1) new events featuring unique activity reflecting the city's distinct character, (2) one-time city-wide festivals or celebrations, and (3) joint ventures that contribute to cultural tourism or community development.

Role of Staff: Noting the experience of other cities, staff believe that a full-time staff position is needed to implement the initiatives recommended in this report. The scope of this position would include catalysing and assisting with new activity, managing requests for Celebration and Opportunity grants, and providing assistance and organizational development support to festival and celebration organizers. The position will complement the role of the Festivals and Special Events Office, which co-ordinates City services provided for special events.

BACKGROUND

Framework for Discussion

In its regulatory and service role through the FEST committee, the City is involved with a wide range of "special events" that take place on City property, including walks, runs, demonstrations, picnics and block parties, as well as festivals, parades and other community-wide celebrations. As indicated earlier, a review of this role in relation to all types of special events is being done by the Film and Special Events Office.

This report addresses the City's relationship to festivals and celebrations, which have historically received civic support, either through Cultural or "Other" grants. As detailed in Appendix A, the report distinguishes between celebrations (one-day special events held outdoors) and festivals (annual multi-day events held outdoors or indoors), and primarily discusses the following types of events:

Community-based festivals or celebrations:

· large or small festivals (e.g. Intertribal Pow-Wow, Taiwanese Cultural Festival) or one-day outdoor celebrations (August Moon Harvest and Latin Cultural festivals)
· held in a public space for the benefit and enjoyment of residents and visitors
· actively programmed around a central theme
· main purpose is to present and celebrate diverse cultural expressions of the community, for example food, arts and crafts, costumes, music and other performances

Major parades:

· large-scale celebratory parades (e.g. Chinese New Year's, Vaisakhi and Pride parades)
· actively programmed to present and celebrate various cultural expressions of the community
· publicized city-wide and primarily held for the benefit of residents and visitors

Professional arts festivals:

· large or small performing, visual, media or literary arts festivals (e.g. Dancing on the Edge, International Children's Festival)
· held in a public space for the benefit and enjoyment of city residents and visitors
· with paid artistic participants and professional administration

Festivals and Celebrations in Cities

Benefits

The role of festivals and celebrations in cities has generally been well recognized and articulated. These events not only provide entertainment for residents and visitors, but also contribute to a sense of community, building bridges between diverse populations and giving them an opportunity to come together and celebrate their history, diversity and the place they live in.

While some of the economic impact claims made on behalf of festivals and celebrations may be extravagant, it's clear that these events do create jobs and can play an important role for tourism. The World Trade Organizations reports that 37% of all international trips include a cultural component and this market has been growing at a rate of 15% a year. Large-scale festivals and celebrations help to promote a city as an exciting destination with a variety of things to do. Less well-known, but distinctive events enhance tourists' experience once they have arrived. Festivals also have the benefit of attracting visitors and their spending for the whole day - several days in some cases.

"Signature" events associated with a city's identity help raise its profile globally and position it as a place to invest in, to set up head offices, and to hold major national and international events. Montreal's Office of Festivals and Public Animation reports that festivals also attract a large number of journalists and media representatives whose reports help promote the city.

Many cities have introduced programs and focussed resources on developing and supporting festivals and special events, recognizing their potential for enriching the quality of life for residents, generating economic activity, and showcasing their city. A staff survey of ten North American cities, each with its unique assets and needs, demonstrates the varied levels of investment and range of approaches that are being undertaken (see Appendix B).

Civic support through grants

Grants are generally regarded as a cost-effective way to achieve both civic objectives and those of the festival organizations they support. They are also a useful means of leveraging funding from other public and private sources. Most of the surveyed cities assisted festivals through grant programs for non-profit organizations.

At the high end of the grant scale, the City of Montreal provided $1.2m in funding to festival organizations. This investment, which is linked to tourism, as well as artistic objectives and community benefits, has helped highlight Montreal as a dynamic city of festivals and cultural celebrations. These festivals contribute a minimum of $60 million a year to Montreal's economy.

One of Montreal's signature events, the two-week Just for Laughs Festival, alone draws 1.5 million people. With the assistance of the private sector, government funders, sound marketing and good support from the Montreal press, the festival has gone from its modest beginnings in 1983, to becoming both an international comedy event and a trade fair that attracts 300 comedy talent agents, managers and presenters. It has also spun off a globally syndicated comedy televison program.

City services

In addition to grants, many cities provide free or at-cost services for public events, including traffic control signage, cleanup services, park spaces, facilities and equipment.
This approach facilitates the co-ordination of city services, and is a great help to event organizers, but it can be a costly and sometimes unacknowledged civic contribution. Even when civic services are provided on a cost-recovery basis, their actual costs, especially administrative costs, tend to be underestimated.

Direct delivery of events by cities

Some cities initiate and develop festivals themselves, or even directly produce events in-house. The City of Toronto, which allocated $514k in grants to professional arts festivals, also produces 30 festival events annually, at a net cost of $3.4m and the involvement of 30 staff members. This activity includes raising sponsorship funds from the corporate sector and is directly tied to economic development and tourism objectives.

Last year, Toronto's Summer Street Festival drew an audience of over 1 million and was estimated to have generated $7.6 million in direct spending in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The Toronto Department of Economic Development, Culture and Tourism, which is responsible for these special events, calculates that every $1 spent by Toronto leveraged an additional $3 in corporate matching support.

Cities undertake the development and direct delivery of festivals to pursue specific economic and community development objectives. Given their responsibility for public spaces, municipal governments have some advantages in presenting outdoor public events. However, as Appendix B indicates, such initiatives require a considerable investment of staff and financial resources, even when the budget is augmented by sponsorships.

Rather than deliver events over the long-term, it appears to be more cost-effective for cities to catalyse events by initiating community partnerships that include non-profit organizations. In the early stages this approach may include the commitment of city staff and significant financial resources to develop the quality programming and organizational infrastructure necessary to sustain an event, but it allows for an eventual shift to a funding-only role for the city.

City of Vancouver's Changing Role

A review of Vancouver's own involvement with festivals and special events provides useful insights into the effectiveness of different approaches and levels of investment.

For at least 25 years, the City has recognized the social and economic benefits of festivals, cultural celebrations and other special events. During these years the City has worked to be "event-friendly" and played a number of roles in initiating, developing and supporting such events through direct grants, the use of City parks, streets and facilities, grants to offset City service costs and the many ways that the City and Park Board staff work to expedite events.

Early years: pro-active role

In the mid-1970's, the City used its newly constituted Cultural Grants program to assist the handful of city-wide festivals and celebrations taking place in Vancouver at the time, and to encourage the development of new cultural festivals. In 1978 the Festival Expediting Staff Team (FEST) committee was established to review and help expedite events held on public property, including streets, sidewalk, parks and other public spaces.

At the same time, having identified gaps in the range of festivals taking place, the City took a pro-active role in creating and producing two major annual events: the International Children's Festival and the Vancouver Folk Music Festival. The City allocated significant staff and financial resources in the initial stages of this development, and these resources were instrumental in leveraging considerable federal funding, which was available for large-scale festivals in those years.

During 1980's, as Vancouver's cultural sector expanded its scope, the City became less directly involved with events, but continued to fund non-profit organizations that were developing festivals and community celebrations (among them the International Film Festival, Jazz Festival, Writers Festival, Dancing on the Edge, Chamber Music Festival, Artropolis and the Dragon Boat Festival). Growth in the City's Cultural Grants budget enabled it to contribute start-up funds for these new initiatives and help them grow. In some cases, as festival organizations earned revenue and their private sector fund-raising capacity increased, the City's investment was reduced.

By the end of the decade, the City no longer employed staff to directly deliver festival programming. Although a cultural planner continued to provide assistance to festivals, this activity gradually diminished as Cultural Affairs staff resources were shifted to address new initiatives and responsibilities in the areas of public art, facility planning, cultural diversity and responsibility for the Major Exhibiting Institutions.

It was in the mid-1980's that the City also introduced the Civic Event designation under which police and engineering costs for civic-sponsored events can be waived. Only five events have had this designation: the Sea Festival, PNE, Remembrance Day, Grey Cup parades and, in 2001, the Celebration of Light. In 1984, in a further effort to be supportive of special events in the city, Council also provided for a waiving of the first $500 of police costs incurred by special events reviewed by the FEST committee.
Last decade: limited resources

For most of the 1990's, the development of festivals and celebrations was affected by a difficult economic climate that led to freezes or cutbacks by many private donors and public funders, including the City. Some events did not survive this period, among them a First Night event downtown, Women in VIEW and the KISS Festival. As indicated in Appendix C, the City's total funding for professional arts festival (not adjusting for inflation) went from a high of $472,631 in 1990 to a low of $347,850 in 1999, as growth in the arts and cultural sector put increased pressure on the Cultural Grants budget.

For the most part, non-commercial events that emerged in the 1990's could not secure the resources to develop on a scale comparable to the major festivals established in earlier years. But there were success stories, including the growth of well-produced neighbourhood events like Illuminares, and two civic celebrations initiated by the City and supported in partnership with other public and private sector funders: the Captain Vancouver Bicentennial program, Arrivals and Encounters in 1992, and the Millennium project, Portrait V2K.

The past few years have seen the appearance of a variety of new events, including the Spring Break Festival, Asian Heritage Month, Aboriginal Arts and Cultural Celebration, Festival Vancouver, Sacred Arts Festival, Chutzpah Festival, and the Taiwanese Cultural Festival. A number of these have derived their success from collaborations involving more than one organization. Some were able to capitalize on one-time Millennium funding and to access new programs and funding increases at the federal level. A list of current Vancouver celebrations and festivals is provided in Appendix D.

Current City support

While the City has a long track record of supporting festive events, its ability to support growth in this sector is currently limited. Existing policies and grant programs do not generally provide for assistance to community-based events. The $1.3m Cultural operating and project grants budget, which has not kept pace with inflation or growth in the cultural sector during the past decade, is not large enough to respond to growth in arts festivals. Police and engineering service costs have gone up, but the $500 police costs offset grant has remained at the same level since 1984.

Last year, the City of Vancouver's Cultural Grants program provided $384,250 to 23 organizations with a festivals and celebrations mandate (not including another five City-funded groups partly engaged in festival activity). Three organizations - the Celebration of Light, Canada Day and Chinese New Year's parade - received a total of $400,000 in police and engineering services. In addition, 40 special events received about $18,500 for police service costs through the FEST committee.

As illustrated in Appendix C, the City receives an excellent return on its investment in festivals and celebrations: each $1 the City invests through its Cultural Grant program is matched by $40.26 in spending from other sources, including $15.51 in earned revenue. Collectively the 24 arts festivals and celebrations in the Cultural Grants data base generate revenues of $17.23m, attract an audience of over 1 million and the services of 8,430 volunteers, who contribute 226,000 hours of their time.

While the City does not have statistics for celebrations outside the mandate of the Cultural Grants program, other sources report that Vancouver's three large parades - Chinese New Year, Vaisahki and Gay Pride - collectively attract 250,000 residents and visitors. Last year's Celebration of Light attracted an estimated 850,000 people over four nights. A Tourism Vancouver survey found that the event generated $37.8m per day in spending by visitors from outside Greater Vancouver.

DISCUSSION

Opportunities

The potential now exists for the City to build on its long-term investment in festivals and celebrations, enhancing their profile and role in our community and their capacity to generate economic activity. There has been considerable growth in festive events in the city, and community interest in them is high. At the same time, the 2010 Olympic bid and the Federal government's major new commitment to cultural activity through new funding programs currently give the City an opportunity to lever funds for festivals and celebrations by investing in specific initiatives. Among the opportunities are:

Arts Presentation Canada: Through the Arts Presentation Canada program the Federal Government has allocated $72 million over three years for professional arts festivals and performing arts presenters to support their overall activities, encourage audience development, strengthen networks, and support program development projects.

Canadian Arts & Heritage Sustainability Program: Festivals and celebrations are eligible for this funding program, which is designed to build organizational capacity and support greater financial sustainability in arts and cultural organizations. Up to $62 million over three years has been allocated for the program.

Cultural Capitals of Canada: In May 2002, the Department of Canadian Heritage announced the Cultural Capitals of Canada awards program, a $5 million incentives program focussed on new civic initiatives. The two-year program is structured as a competition that will provide up to $500,000 on a matching basis toward initiatives focussing on celebrations that highlight community identity and on building cultural development legacies such as cultural tourism.

Canada Council: There has been a parallel increase in Canada Council's budget of $75 million over three years. These funds are not solely for festivals as a category, but there are festival activities that can benefit from this increase, for example events, such as Asian Heritage Month, which highlight cultural diversity.

Industry Canada: Major festival and event producers in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver have been negotiating with Industry Canada to have large-scale cultural, sporting, and other special events designated an industry sector and provided with funding to strengthen management and infrastructure, on a matching basis.

Vancouver Olympic Bid: The Olympic bid will provide a strategic opportunity to enhance existing activity and undertake some new cultural program development. Should the bid be successful, the Olympics will provide ongoing opportunities and resources for cultural development.

Recommendations

While it is neither feasible nor necessary for the City to support all the events listed in Appendix D, staff believe it can achieve a number of economic and community development objectives and lever funds from other sources by expanding the scope of its current policies and support mechanisms for festivals and celebrations. Drawing on lessons from other cities, and on Vancouver's own experience, staff are proposing a number of strategies to strengthen the role of festivals and celebrations in achieving the following objectives:

· Enriching the quality of life for residents and enhancing the experience of visitors by providing for a variety of quality activities accessible to people of all ages and walks of life.

· Contributing to community development by supporting events that celebrate the city's heritage and diverse communities, creating a sense of community ownership.

· Contributing to economic development by raising Vancouver's profile as a tourist destination and place to invest in, by supporting distinctive events, as well as initiatives designed to promote them.

The staff recommendations described in the following pages make clear distinctions between different types of festivals and celebrations as articulated in the policy framework (Appendix A), and identify appropriate mechanisms for targeting support to optimize its effectiveness. The recommendations were developed in consultation with staff from the Festivals and Special Events Office and Park Board.

City Services

The costs of police and engineering services add to the costs of organizing various special events, sometimes limiting their ability to grow. Staff note that these costs are significant and are difficult to absorb in departmental budgets.

Comments:

As indicated earlier, a report from Film and Special Events Office City staff will be reviewing this issue. Staff note that the City's use of a standard offsetting grant for police costs is an efficient mechanism for providing assistance to a wide variety of sports, cultural and miscellaneous other community events. A review of the amount of the offset (currently $500) might be timely, and consideration could be given to the use of a two-tier or variable system, for large and small events. This report does not propose that grants to cover service costs be considered outside the standard offsets and the existing policy on "Civic Events", as discussed in the next section.

Civic Event Designation

Special event organizers often approach the City with requests for the "Civic Event" designation that provides for waiving of police and engineering costs. This designation has historically been applied to five events, most recently to the Celebration of Light.

Comments and recommendation:

Noting the difficulty of applying equitable criteria to a wide variety of requests for the Civic Event designation, and the potentially high cost of assuming civic service costs for a undetermined number of events, staff recommend that the designation not be expanded. As defined in Appendix A, it should be limited to special events that the City - on its own or in partnership with other organizations - has initiated and/or has a significant role in organizing.

Professional Arts Festivals

As the Background section of this report and Appendix C indicate, Cultural Grants support for arts festivals and celebrations has decreased since 1990, mainly due to increased demands on the Project and Operating grant categories through which festivals are funded. The challenge of securing funding from various sources has affected the number and scale of Vancouver festivals established in the past ten years, many of which have budgets under $200k.

Comments:

Staff note that the Cultural Grants program is the appropriate vehicle for assisting professional arts festivals, and that increased assistance to arts festivals would strengthen existing events and support the growth of promising new festivals. However, such an increase is most appropriately addressed when the 2003 Cultural Grants budget is presented to Council, in the context of the needs of other types of organizations supported through the Operating and Project components of the Cultural grant program.

Community-based Festivals and Celebrations

The activities of many festive events in Vancouver - including various ethno-cultural and distinctive neighbourhood celebrations - are beyond the scope of existing civic support programs. Some of these events, for example the city's larger parades, would benefit from investment to enhance their operations, program content and city-wide outreach.

The City's Cultural Grants budget is an inadequate and often inappropriate vehicle for assisting these events, given its arts mandate and limited budget. The "Other" grants category has occasionally provided funding for special events, but there are few policy guidelines for evaluating the broad range of requests on a consistent and equitable basis.

Comments and recommendation:

Staff propose that $75,000 be allocated for "Celebration" grants for community-based festivals and outdoor celebrations, including large-scale parades and other such events not currently eligible for grants. Guidelines for these grants should be based on the policy framework in Appendix A, and eligibility criteria should include two or more years of operation, growth potential, and a minimum budget size. The grants should be targeted to marketing, program enhancement and strengthening organizational expertise. The program would be managed by the Office of Cultural Affairs, in consultation with other civic departments.

Special Initiatives

The list of festive activities in Vancouver during the course of a year (Appendix D) reveals a number of programming gaps and needs:

· There are times during the year and dates special to Vancouver residents (for example, the City's birthday) that are short on festivals and celebrations. Unlike most Canadian cities, Vancouver with its mild climate has the potential for a longer festival and celebration season.
· Although Vancouver has excellent major celebrations similar to those in other cities (e.g. the International Film and Jazz festivals), it lacks a distinctive "signature event" associated with its identity: its history, location on the Pacific Coast or its diverse population. A city's competitiveness in today's tourism market place can be greatly enhanced by attractions and events that differentiate it from other cities.

· The current range of arts festivals does not fully reflect Vancouver's artistic strengths; for example, there is no annual international theatre festival to complement the Fringe Festival.

· Although Vancouver is an attractive location for one-time events, it does not currently have a mechanism for hosting or assisting one-time celebrations, cultural exchanges and festivals held here.

· Many smaller and emerging festivals and celebrations have a relatively low profile, even among residents, and most of the city's larger festivals have audience development potential, especially outside the city.

Comments and recommendation:

The review of different cities' support for festivals and celebrations highlights the cost-effectiveness of strategies based on partnerships with community initiatives. Vancouver's experience over the past 25 years also demonstrates that adequate assistance in the early stages of an event's development can be crucial to its quality, growth and sustainability.

To provide assistance and incentives for expanding the scope of festival activity in Vancouver, to help raise the profile of existing celebrations, while capitalizing on opportunities for leveraging funds, staff recommend that the City adopt a mechanism and guidelines for providing a maximum of three "Opportunity" grants/awards per year, not to exceed $400,000 annually and based on leveraging opportunities. Funding would be allocated, based on Council approval, from Contingency Reserve. The application process would be managed by the Office of Cultural Affairs in consultation with other civic departments. Three type of initiatives would be eligible:

· New, professionally organized festivals or celebrations that offer unique activity in Vancouver and directly relate to the city's distinct character, including its history, diversity, and location on the Pacific Coast.

· One-time, city-wide festivals or special celebrations, including cultural exchanges taking place in Vancouver and having a local, non-profit organizational component.

· Joint ventures and cultural exchanges that contribute to cultural tourism or community development. The initiative should involve experienced festival and special event organizations, and may involve organizations outside the non-profit cultural sector (for example, the hospitality industry).

Staff propose to report back to Council on the effectiveness of the Opportunity grant mechanism in the Spring of 2005.

Role of Staff

Among their strategies for supporting and developing festivals and celebrations, many cities have staff members whose role is to advise, expedite city processes, initiate and administer support programs, or even to manage and produce events. The level of staffing depends on the nature of the city's involvement. As indicated in Appendix B, the City of Toronto has 30 people on staff involved in producing 30 festivals and celebrations. The City of Montreal has an Office of Festivals and Public Animation with five staff members responsible for funding programs, event logistics, technical and administrative assistance, and community relations.

Comments and recommendation:

The development initiatives proposed in this report to strengthen existing events and catalyse new activity will require a new, full-time staff position. The scope of this position would be broader than the management of grant requests. A key role would be to encourage, facilitate and support new initiatives related to the City's objectives for festivals and celebrations.

Responsibilities would also entail helping organizations develop effective event management tools and sustainable operations that include fund-raising and audience development strategies. The position would complement the roles of the various civic departments currently dealing with logistics and permits for special events, by facilitating co-ordination between civic departments, and providing advice to new and less experienced event organizers on City processes.

Creation of this staff position with full-time responsibility for festivals and celebrations within the Office of Cultural Affairs is proposed to begin duties in Spring 2003, with a report back to Council in Spring 2005. It is recommended that the funding for this position be included in the operating budget.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

Within the policy framework recommended in this report, staff have made three recommendations that will have financial implications, starting in 2003. In consultation with the Manager of Budgets, staff are recommending that the budget requirements for the three initiatives be addressed as follows:

"Celebration" grants for community-based festivals and celebrations: Staff have recommended a budget ceiling of $75,000 a year for this new grant program, to be approved within the City's annual operating budget. Funding of $48,000 is available from the "Miscellaneous" component of the Other Grants category, while the remaining funds will need to be provided from the 2003 Operating Budget, subject to budget review.

This report recommends the permanent funding reallocation of the "Miscellaneous" grants component of Other Grants, given the lack of guidelines and low demand for this small funding source. Further, grants that have exceeded the funding available in the "Miscellaneous" category have historically been reported to Council separately and funded from Contingency Reserve. Therefore, staff believe that funding in this category would be more appropriately utilized by shifting the funding to the new "Celebration" grants program. The Other grants would then consist of "Annual Recurring" grants, "Major Facilities" grants and specific grants such as the "Community Safety" grants.

"Opportunity" grants for special initiatives: This is a policy framework for considering requests for three types of initiatives focussed on expanding the scope and profile of festivals in Vancouver. It is recommended that the number of applications considered in any given year be limited to three, that the total grants approved not exceed $400,000 annually, and that grants only be provided subject to leveraging funding from other sources. The source of City funds for requests would be Contingency Reserve, and staff anticipate that the level of requests will vary from year to year. Given the anticipated fluctuation in funding requirements from one year to the next, it would not be appropriate to set aside committed funding for these "Opportunity" grants, and therefore, funding would be provided from Contingency Reserve as required.

Full-time staff position: Co-ordination of the new Celebration grants will require additional staff time, but would not on its own require the creation of a new staff position. However, as staff noted earlier in this report, if the City is to have an effective role in strengthening existing festivals and celebrations, and a more pro-active role in catalysing new activity, a full-time staff position is needed. Staff estimate that the cost of this position will be approximately $74,000.

Staff will report back to Council on the new grant programs in Spring 2005, including the staff position and the on-going funding needs of the program.

CONCLUSION

The recommendations in this report include approval of a policy framework for civic support for festivals and celebrations, two funding mechanisms for strengthening existing events and stimulating new activity, and the creation of a staff position to provide for a more pro-active civic role in supporting events. The recommendations build on the City's long history of support for festivals and celebrations, which has adjusted from time to time as needs and resources have changed. Staff believe that through the proposed initiatives, the City, in partnership with others organizations, can make an effective contribution to this vital part of the city's life and character.

LINK TO APPENDIX A

LINK TO APPENDIX B

LINK TO APPENDIX C

LINK TO APPENDIX D

 

 

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