After being cancelled for the past couple of years, the future of The Great Canadian Kayak Challenge is up in the air.
The annual event organized by Tourism Timmins, where the co-ordinator of festivals and special events position has been eliminated, was last held in 2019.
At this week's City of Timmins budget meeting, CAO Dave Landers said the 2022 festival is not included in this year's budget. He gave a number of reasons for it.
"Number one, we have no idea if we’ll be able to deliver on it. Number two, I think council needs to make a decision on if we want to get back into being the host of festivals going forward. So I think that would be something that council will have to determine in the upcoming year. And number three, if those sorts of festivals continue to go on, that might be a MAT tax discussion or a city MAT discussion,” he said.
The festival has been funded through donations and sponsorship.
"And this isn’t the climate where we can go out for donations and sponsorships for that kind of a festival municipally run,” he said.