Stars and Thunder fireworks, what could be done differently and council's legacy highlighted a talk at council's final meeting.
The financial report showing a $1.6 million shortfall for the second edition of the eight-day music festival was up for discussion at the Sept. 25 meeting.
The 2018 festival started in June and wrapped up Canada Day with a Bryan Adams concert.
The staff report reveals there were 10,594 tickets worth more than $2 million sold this year. For the inaugural festival in 2017, 21,353 tickets worth $3.9 million were sold.
Cash sponsors were up significantly, with the city securing $517,750 in 2018. In 2017 there was $150,000.
In-kind sponsorships were also up slightly, with there being $654,000 this year compared to $650,000 in 2017.
“Another highlight of the festival was the 50/50 partnership we had with the United Way, which was, I think, a value-added opportunity for people who attended the partnership,” CAO Dave Landers told council, adding almost $100,000 was raised for local not-for-profit and charity groups.
Coun. Rick Dubeau has been vocal with his concerns about the festival.
“First off, I’d like to recognize that the feedback that I heard from the community about Stars and Thunder was that it was a very well-organized event,” he said.
By losing $1.6 million, however, he said it cannot be considered a success.
He asked Timmins Mayor Steve Black what he would do differently.
Black said if the new council wants to continue with the festival, there are several things to consider.
“One is if you commit to an event for a longer period of time over the term of council there’s several infrastructure items that you can buy that come at a high cost item, there’s already been one that’s talked about in the Hollinger Park plans and that would be a permanent stage. Our stage rental for the festival is several hundred thousand dollars. If the city decides to use some of the municipal accommodation tax to go toward building a stage, permanent infrastructure, that would come off the annual operating cost of the festival,” Black responded.
If the festival was reduced to four days, he said it would also significantly reduce the entertainment and security budget.
Without a proper business plan in place, Coun. Joe Campbell said the second festival should not have gone ahead.
“We didn’t do it,” he said. “And we have to bear that right now, we have to run on that record.”
If there is a deficit at the end of the year, the shortfall will be covered by the tax stabilization fund.
“The tax stabilization fund is there if you run a deficit to balance the budget. It currently sits at $2.3 million, if we take $1.7 (million) out of there, we’re at $600,000 for the remaining three months of this year. We’re predicting a balanced budget, but we all know that October, November, December could be terrible snow months and we may not have enough money in the budget to cover it,” said Campbell.
At this point, Timmins treasurer Natalie Moore is forecasting that the city will break even on this year’s budget.
If that happens, she said there are savings in other departments that will cover the Stars and Thunder deficit, which would mean cash wouldn’t have to come out of the stabilization fund.
Fireworks were another sticking point for Campbell.
He said the chair of the fireworks committee received 29 VIP passes and held up a list of the names of people receiving them. While he said there are some names of fireworks organizer David Whysall’s employees and international guests, he questioned where the other passes went.
“There are people on this list that if I was to throw out names, it’s very difficult to rationalize what role they would have in the fireworks,” Campbell said.
“Let’s be honest with our taxpayers and move on, and hopefully that if this happens again with the new council that we have a proper business plan and a proper model.”
CAO Dave Landers explained that as part of the security, a list of names for the fireworks crew was provided for passes to make sure they had access to the grounds.
With so much discussion about Stars and Thunder over the past couple of years, Coun. Pat Bamford is worried it’s what this term of council will be judged on.
“And it would be a disservice to us, it would be a disservice to the staff, and a disservice certainly to the taxpayers because it would be misinformation if they thought that that’s all we did, because we’ve heard a lot about Stars and Thunder,” he said. “It would be sad really, and wrong, if this council were defined by Stars and Thunder.”
He also said the city can’t continue with an operation that’s losing this kind of money.
“Quite frankly, I’ve gone around most of my ward now and I would say that if I voted another Stars and Thunder I’d probably be looking for a house to live in,” he said.
While he thinks it’s a good community event, he said “some people who didn’t go felt that why should we be paying for others to have a party.”
Meanwhile, Coun. Noella Rinaldo said the next council will have to look at all of the things that are subsidized, including arenas, sports and the pool.
“I’m very comfortable subsidizing this in comparison to say an arena. So I think this council will have to sit here and decide what is important, and where their economic growth and quality of life will come from,” she said.
While Campbell isn’t in favour of a festival featuring the city as the promoter, he noted there are opportunities. He said they should take a look at Rock on the River, which is put on by the Timmins Festivals and Events Committee, and what they’ve done right.
“I’m not advocating that Stars and Thunder go ahead in any similar form, we should take a serious look at Rock on the River and we should take a serious look at a promoter that comes in here and takes the risk,” he said.
Following Stars and Thunder, Black said he attended other festivals.
“I can tell you in terms of a family-friendly oriented, safe festival to attend ours is one of the best in the province,” he said.
He said the city supports Rock on the River, and noted it could be one of the organizations to benefit from the municipal accommodations tax.
“But when you talk about Rock on the River, their attendance is only 2,000 people. The attendance at Stars and Thunder was around 10,000 people,” said Black.
He went on to say that Rock on the River wouldn’t bring in Keith Urban or Bryan Adams because of the cost of entertainment and “because their base doesn’t support it.”
“So that’s a decision that the future council’s will have to make, is whether this event is of value to the community and whether they think that this community and region deserves to have the opportunity to see shows like that and under what format,” he said.
