Buskers are complaining to the city about recent rules and fees that make it harder for them to work.
Ottawa buskers say recent rules and fees imposed by the city are crippling their outdoor performances and may force them to leave town.
In 2008, Ottawa approved and implemented a $200 licence – one of the heftiest busker fees in North America – for street performers working in the Byward Market.
Nearby at the Sparks Street Mall, the host spot for the city’s annual Buskerfest, performers are required to register and pay for an annual $50 permit. These fees are likely to increase over the next few months, says Bill Parsons, site manager of Sparks Street Mall.
For entertainers who depend on busking as their main source of income, these fees are too high.
“The City of Ottawa is doing its best to stifle one of the few raw, unmediated forms of art available to everyone walking through the downtown core,” says a Facebook group called Ottawa Buskers and Supporters Against Unfair City Restrictions.
“The restrictions the city has implemented will force many of us out of (Ottawa).”
The Ottawa Buskers Association is set to meet with the city’s arts advisory committee on Nov. 21 in the hope licence fees will be lowered in the downtown core.
A bylaw forces buskers in the market to pay for a $50 licence every year, on top of a permit fee of $10 per day for 15 daily permits. There are currently 100 licenced buskers in the market area.
Buskers can also perform in several spots around Centretown, including Little Italy and along Wellington Street, without a licence. While these areas attract fewer tourists, Parsons says he has noticed an increase of buskers in the Sparks Street Mall area.
Meanwhile, other city restrictions on noise levels and show duration have also hurt the entertainers, buskers say.
Street entertainer Paul Perreault, from the Stunt Double Circus troupe, said his group will not perform in Ottawa next year because the current bylaw doesn’t allow anyone in his show to use a microphone.
“All of a sudden, it’s illegal to use a tool of my trade,” Perrault says. “(My group has) been forced to yell all of our shows . . . we’re losing our voices, meaning that we lose shows.”
But the city argues the bylaw has benefits for the performers.
Paolo Copelli, the city’s co-ordinator for the Byward and Parkdale markets, says that buskers became aggressive in the past if they didn’t get the prime locations to perform in the Byward Market, since the space was divided up in a first-come, first-served basis.
The bylaw was also put in place to allow vendors and services in the Byward Market access to more space.
“There’s a lot of different stakeholders (in the Byward Market) . . . (and) a number of demands placed on this real estate.” Copelli says. “You’ve got to deal with the residents, with the (business management), with the merchants that have storefronts, the restaurateurs, the bar owners, the outdoor vendors.”
Buskers can now only perform for an hour in one of 12 designated spots before they must pick up and move elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Copelli says the Byward Market management is in contact with entertainers from the city’s buskers association and is listening to the performers’ concerns regarding the licence and the imposed rules.
“We’ve been discussing with them and are engaged in the process of being a partner and being a stakeholder within the (busker) community,” Copelli says. “So the dialogue is open.”