Visitors enjoy the flowers at Ottawa’s annual Tulip Festival.
City officials are calling for the Department of Canadian Heritage to establish reasonable eligibility requirements and deadlines for Ottawa festivals that apply for federal funding.
To be considered for funding, the federal building communities through arts and heritage program requires that festivals provide written proof that they have financial or “in-kind” support from their municipalities.
Nicole Zuger, a program manager with the city’s cultural services and community funding branch, says the city had reservations about the program from the beginning.
She says it’s very rare for a program to ask for a written confirmation of funding, and that usually a festival’s funding history is considered enough to prove eligibility.
“When the program was launched, we looked at the criteria and voiced our concerns verbally and in writing as a fellow funder to the Department of Canadian Heritage because we were concerned that this would create undue hardship for Ottawa’s groups,” says Zuger.
After re-examining its standards, the program moved the application deadline forward, placing the deadline before city budgets, which Zuger says created further problems.
This means that festivals which choose to demonstrate their eligibility for the program through financial support must ask city council to promise them money before council has even decided on how much money will be available for festivals in the coming year.
Zuger says for council to promise money before the budget is decided is illegal because it would be taking money from a fund that isn’t even there yet.
The Canadian Tulip Festival managed to meet this requirement at the Sept. 24 city council meeting. The festival had applied to the program at the beginning of September, showing a promise of shuttle buses from OC Transpo as proof of eligibility. The program rejected the application saying the tulip festival had not clearly demonstrated in-kind support.
To make the final deadline of Sept. 30, the festival went to the city to ask for help.
Rideau-Vanier Coun. Georges Bédard presented the festival’s predicament to council, asking that the city commit 50 per cent of the festival’s 2008 funding allocation.
After voting on an amended motion, council agreed to 25 per cent, or $25,000. This is conditional on funding availability in the city budget and the festival continu to meet all other funding requirements.
The tulip festival must also successfully apply to the city’s 2009 Festivals, Fairs and Special Events program, which decides which festivals will receive funding based on a peer-review process.
Doug Little, director of finance and marketing for the 2009 tulip festival, says the written confirmation of support was more of a problem than the deadline itself.
“It’s an odd requirement when it’s so stringent,” says Little. “To me the fact that the city of Ottawa has funded the Canadian Tulip Festival in various ways, for the last [number of] years should be some kind of proof that we have municipal support.”
Last year, the tulip festival received $55,000 from the program. Little says that for funding to hinge solely on municipal support would be a big blow to the festival.
“Various levels of government have various levels of regulation and I just hope that one way or another we can fulfill them and that we can get that money here,” he says.
The Canadian Tulip Festival had 650,000 visitors in 2005, and the latest study from Ottawa Tourism estimated the festival’s economic benefit to the city to be about $40 million.
Canadian Heritage was contacted but did not comment.