As Canmore and its elected officials learn to manage an event calendar in the community throughout the year that not only affects residents and visitors, but is also a hallmark of a tourism-based economy – what they are being asked to provide to support events has become a real sticking point.
Take the 2017 Para Nordic World Cup, for example. Organizers Norbert Meier and Carly Lewis appeared in front of council looking for support for the major racing event taking pace at the Canmore Nordic Centre in December.
Organizers asked council to support the event in the same way it supported other major world cup sport events at the Nordic Centre, such as 2016 biathlon and cross-country races.
But what that exactly looks like, and what it means in terms of staff time and resources from the municipality, didn’t include enough detail when the request returned to Canmore council for a vote at the end of April.
What ended up happening instead is council delayed supporting the event through a motion and asked administration to return with better information about what event support means in this situation.
General manager of municipal services Sally Caudill said the para-nordic races have requested support through a letter from the mayor and council, introductions for event organizers to key partners at Roam Transit, space for staging events downtown at the Civic Centre plaza and atrium as well as equipment, volunteer and marketing support.
“I am here to ask that council endorse the 2017 Para Nordic World Cup and approve provision of facility in kind support with respect to facility use and that council direct administration to work with 2017 world cup organizers on appropriate equipment, volunteer and marketing options,” Caudill said.
Caudill said the community has a long history of hosting public events for sport, culture and recreation and these events are recognized contributors to the community and have significant value for residents and economic impact. The Town’s current event policy sets out three levels of support: base, extraordinary support and a fee for service.
While the letter of support and introductions to Roam Transit are easily provided, Caudill said requests for volunteer, equipment and marketing support contain items that can and cannot be provided and told council administration would work with organizers to help determine specifics in terms of what kind of support is possible and what is not.
For example, organizers asked for volunteers, but Caudill said administration cannot provide volunteers to fill roles, but could assist in volunteer recruitment. Another example of support is the portable sound system the Town of Canmore’s IT department has and provides when needed to events held at the Civic Centre.
The support being requested by Para Nordic organizers, Caudill said, fits within approved budgets of departments for 2017.
This year, administration is working on further refining its event policies, especially around facility rental and in-kind contributions, and how the municipality assesses those requests. There is a new process in 2017 for event funding requests to be reviewed by a selection committee instead of having those types of requests go to council on an ad hoc basis.
Event funding has become an issue for Canmore’s elected officials after the demise of Canmore Business and Tourism last summer. The destination marketing organization had an event support process in place that now falls to the municipality and council to fill without a destination marketing organization for the community.
Mayor John Borrowman made a motion to endorse the event by writing a letter and providing the Civic Centre for events related to the world cup races, and directed administration to work with organizers on their other requests.
