The chair of one of Coquitlam’s biggest festivals says his non-profit group may have to find a new home if the city doesn’t come up with more cash.
Today (Monday), Mike Chisholm of the BC Highland Games and Scottish Festival made a plea to the city’s council-in-committee saying his society has its eye on Surrey or SFU if Coquitlam can’t offer more financial support.
Chisholm’s pitch comes in the middle of city council’s annual budget deliberations — and a week after Coquitlam won a national award for Town Centre Park as the best public space in Canada; in its press release, the municipality credited the Scottish festival for drawing visitors to the space.
Chisholm said the Games, which typically draw 10,000 guests from around the Pacific Northwest (60% of them Tri-City residents) for the competitions and entertainment, will have to downsize in 2018 if more funding isn’t found.
The current site at Percy Perry Stadium is too expensive and restrictive with the artificial turf field, he said. And the group’s recent Spirit of Coquitlam gaming grants of $10,100 for this year and $11,795 for 2018 won’t cover the shortfalls, especially as the city mandates a business licence at $500 and strict waste/recycling collection at a cost of $3,500. Combined with the city’s $3,300 stadium rental fee, this year’s Games didn’t break even, he said.
Chisholm said his group would like to move next year’s Games to the park plaza area, where Kaleidoscope and the Canada Day celebrations were held; however, the site is a non-starter if there’s no room for heavy events.
He’s now looking at space in the Holland Park neighbourhood of Surrey and at the SFU campus on Burnaby Mountain, both of which have hotels nearby.
Chisholm said he’d like to see council re-examine how it awards grants.
Coun. Brent Asmundson said council wants community groups to become more self-sufficient but he was open to the idea of bridge funding given the society’s financial losses since 2015, when a downpour kept crowds away.
Eric Kalnins, Coquitlam’s tourism manager, said losing the Games would have a significant impact to economic spinoffs. “We are doing our best to partner with the organizers and we will support them trying to move forward.”
Still, after the committee meeting, Coquitlam’s general manager of parks, recreation and culture services told The Tri-City News that council has provided Spirit grants to the society for the past eight years and there’s pressure from other community organizations also asking for handouts.
“We have tried to give them quite a bit and supported them on site,” Raul Allueva said, noting the funding formula for Spirit grants has changed. “We would like to support them more if they work with us and fine-tune their ask.”
This year’s fest was marketed as “the Games at the End of the Train” with the opening of the Evergreen Extension, which has its terminus at the park.
The Games have called Coquitlam home for the past 20 years. Previously, it was staged at Hastings Park and at the Malkin Bowl, in Stanley Park.
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