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The crowd-pleasing Canada Day fireworks will not be happening in 2020, following District council’s decision to lower their grant to the Squamish Downtown Business Improvement Association. Council voted unanimously in favour of lowering the amount of money granted to the Downtown Business Improvement Association, or DBIA, on Dec. 17. “We’ve got so many other groups, and we’re cutting funding to schools’ projects — I think we also have to look at these as well,” said Mayor Karen Elliott. Elected officials voted unanimously in favour of giving the association $12,000 in cash and up to $6,500 in in-kind donations, as part of the municipality’s community enhancement grant program. For 2020, the DBIA asked for $31,000 in cash and $13,488 in in-kind donations. In a breakdown of costs presented to council on Dec. 17, the association estimated Canada Day fireworks would cost over $6,000. However, the total bill for the Brennan Park portion of the celebration adds up to roughly $23,000. The money council granted is intended for the association’s efforts to host public events, including the pumpkin patch, Christmas parade and Canada Day. The DBIA has said that they will not be able to have fireworks at the celebration for 2020. A parade, festivities and evening entertainment will still happen downtown, though. “It’s somewhat — for the most part — out of our control,” said Robyn Kelly, the executive director of the association. The fire department will only allow for fireworks to happen in Brennan Park, as water sprinklers can reduce the chance of fire there, she said. Kelly said fireworks can’t be held anywhere else in town and without the money, the DBIA can’t bring fireworks to Brennan Park. Furthermore, bringing people to Brennan Park is outside the DBIA’s mandate, which is to keep people — and therefore business — downtown, she said. The amount granted by council is lower than what they gave the association for 2019. Previously, council gave the DBIA $15,000 in cash and $6,500 in in-kind donations for 2019. The money was for all the celebrations hosted by the organization. Kelly said that in 2019, the DBIA took a significant financial hit to host the fireworks, which they can’t afford to repeat this coming year. At a previous council meeting, DBIA president Edward Archibald said that one-time sponsors were able to help make the fireworks happen in 2019. However, Kelly said that for 2020, they haven’t tried approaching potential sponsors, and it’s unclear if anyone will be able to step forward again. Kelly said the DBIA has committed to host Canada Day for 2020, though there are no firm plans for the years after. She added that the DBIA would still like to host Canada Day events downtown, but perhaps another organization can put together fireworks at Brennan Park. |
