City to discuss potential alternatives to usual Canada Day festivities

City council has opted to delay voting on a staff recommendation to both cancel Canada Day and Harbourfest events this July due to COVID-19 and plan to hold a community event in late summer if restrictions on large gatherings are lifted.

That vote is now set for May 25 after staff presents an updated forecast on the pandemic’s impact on the city’s finances and in hopes that more information will be available on whether the province’s reopening plan will allow large gatherings this summer.

But Mayor Ian Boddy said he doesn’t anticipate the two events will happen as usual.

“We’re looking at all alternatives for Canada Day. It’s obvious, I think, that we’re not going to be able to have an event that attracts everybody together, but what can we do? And we’ll try to figure that out,” he said in an interview.

“It might be that we’d do it later in the year and not actually on Canada Day, but we’re looking at all the options.”

The recommendation to shelve the 2020 Canada Day event – which was to also commemorate the 100^th anniversary of Owen Sound becoming an incorporated city – and Harbourfest comes after the cancellation of several other large-scale events due to COVID-19 that were to happen this summer on Owen Sound’s waterfront.

The Georgian Bay Folk Society has cancelled the 2020 Summerfolk, set for Aug. 21-23 at Kelso Beach Park, while the Sydenham Sportsmen’s Association pulled the plug on this summer’s Owen Sound Salmon Spectacular and Ontario Festivals Group has cancelled this September’s Owen Sound Ribfest at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre.

The city has also shelved the June 5 Riverside Reunion.

A report to council by community development and marketing manager Brent Fisher recommends the city cancel its Canada Day event and July 11 Harbourfest and direct staff to plan a single event in late summer or early fall with input from medical officer of health Dr. Ian Arra and provincial officials.

Fisher said council set aside $22,850 in the 2020 budget for Canada Day, which includes a $10,000 federal grant that must be spent on a community event before March 21.

Council budgeted $17,000 for Harbourfest.

Fisher’s report says the city would save about $19,600 by cancelling Harbourfest and the Riverside Reunion and that money could be returned to Owen Sound’s operating budget.

He suggested the city use the budget for Canada Day, including the federal grant, to hold the late summer community celebration.

However, council members had mixed opinions on that idea, questioning whether it would be wise to start planning for that event given the current COVID-19 situation and whether that money should instead be used to address the potential impacts of the pandemic, such as by helping the city to offset the anticipated operating budget shortfall that will result from reduced user fees and other revenue.

An April 27 report to council projected that shortfall will hit $1 million if city services and operations begin returning to normal by July 1. Staff is suggesting the city cover the shortfall by deferring about $656,000 in capital projects planned for 2020 and using reserves and other surpluses.

Coun. Scott Greig said he would support spending the $10,000 federal grant on fireworks – perhaps on the Civic holiday or Labour Day – but he’d like to see the rest of the Canada Day budget put aside in reserves to address COVID-19-related impacts.

“Our municipal finances have absolutely been shredded in the last eight weeks and will continue to be shredded for the foreseeable future. We’re looking at other (projects) where we have to put them off to try to mitigate the financial damage from this,” he said.

Coun. Carol Merton said she wants the city to come up with a way to allow the community to still celebrate Canada Day, such as by holding some sort of an event or activities online, without having a large gathering.

“This is a challenging time for everyone and this could be used as a creative opportunity to draw our community together, just in a different way,” she said.

Coun. Richard Thomas said he would like to see the community come together this year to celebrate, if possible and once it’s safe to do so, noting “if there was ever a year that this community needs some kind of a celebration, this is the year.”

Fisher’s report references the province’s three-stage framework for reopening Ontario. Each stage will last about two to four weeks to allow for “close monitoring of any impacts or potential resurgence of cases.”

Stage 1 will consider allowing for a greater number of individuals to attend some events, such as funerals, while Stage 2 would consider permitting some larger public gatherings. If the loosening of public health measures under those two stages is deemed successful, Stage 3 would consider further relaxing restrictions on public gatherings.

However, even the final stage says “large public gatherings,” such as concerts and sporting events, will continue to be restricted for the foreseeable future.

Fisher’s report says even if the Canada Day festivities and Harbourfest were allowed to happen on their scheduled dates, it is unclear what restrictions might be included and what impact heightened safety measures would have on each event’s budget.

Fisher said a final decision to cancel those events must be made at least 30 days before the event date due to deadlines for planning, promotion and securing entertainment, permits and other logistics.