Three host First Nations to receive $18 million for 2026 FIFA World Cup
That same month, the provincial government released its updated total capital and operating cost estimates for hosting the FIFA Word Cup in Vancouver, with costs across all three levels of government — including those of the City of Vancouver — expected to reach between $532 million and $624 million. This includes between $46 million and $98 million for “other costs including co-ordination of provincial essential services required to support the City and supporting First Nations’ capacity and participation.”
As it turns out, that “other costs” budget line of up to $98 million includes a combined total of $18 million for the First Nations, with the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh each receiving $6 million. This has ignited some public and media criticism of the provincial government’s rationale for allocating the substantial funding to the First Nations, after Global News first broke the news yesterday on this First Nations funding allocation.
First Nations could use the funding for new soccer fields
Upon inquiry, the B.C. Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture, and Sport told Daily Hive Urbanized today that the contribution agreement “provides clear guidelines on how the money is to be spent, managed, and reported.”
The Ministry noted that the First Nations could use the funding to support the creation of physical legacies such as new and improved soccer fields on their lands to encourage youth participation in support, for example. How the money is to be spent will ultimately be decided by the First Nations, but it would be within the provided parameters.
Not too long ago, up until Fall 2022 when it was rejected by the provincial government, the Canadian Olympic Committee was also working with local First Nations on the possibility of launching an Indigenous-led bid to host the 2030 Winter Olympics, which have since been awarded to the French Alps.
“The Province is committed to fostering respectful, collaborative relationships with Indigenous Peoples, grounded in recognition of rights, respect and partnership. We recognize the value and importance of working collaboratively with the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations on the planning, staging and hosting of seven FIFA World Cup 26™ matches that will take place on their shared territories,” reads the Ministry’s statement to Daily Hive Urbanized.
First Nations funding is the same budget as Vancouver’s entire FIFA Fan Festival or B.C’s one-time grant funding to save events
To put the scale of this Indigenous cultural and legacy funding into perspective, the $18-million allocation to the three First Nations is comparable to the City of Vancouver’s entire operating and programming budget for the five-month-long official FIFA Fan Festival at the PNE fairgrounds in Hastings Park. The festival, which will run throughout the tournament in June and July 2026, is expected to draw tens of thousands of attendees to Hastings Park each day.
Vancouver’s world-class FIFA Fan Festival — a requirement by FIFA for all 16 host cities — has been provided with a base budget of at least $20 million, plus management fees to the contracted event production companies. The calibre of this event will be similar to the City’s significant staging of the Live City Yaletown and Live City Downtown festivals during the 2010 Olympics.
The FIFA World Cup funding allocation to the First Nations is also similar in size to the Ministry’s 2024 B.C. Fairs, Festivals and Events Fund (BCFFE), which provided a total of $20 million in grant funding to over 1,100 eligible events held between April 2024 and September 2025.
Event organizers could direct the one-time BCFFE grant funding toward the logistical, operational, and programming costs of their events. Many organizers have credited this provincial support with helping prevent their 2024 and 2025 events from being downsized or cancelled altogether — a risk driven by sharply rising market costs since the pandemic and a very weak corporate sponsorship climate. For the same reasons, there is a growing risk that apart from the FIFA World Cup, the 2026 events season in Metro Vancouver could look sparse due to the downsizing and cancellations of many annual events and traditions.
Since the resumption of events in 2022, when health and safety restrictions on gatherings were lifted, provincial and federal grant programs designed to support event recovery have played an instrumental role in keeping many events alive in B.C.
BCFFE was capped at up to $200,000 per event, with a total of 17 events receiving this full amount, including major events such as the Honda Celebration of Light fireworks, Great Outdoor Comedy Fest Stanley Park, FVDED In The Park in Surrey, BMO Vancouver Marathon, HSBC Vancouver SVNS rugby tournament, PNE Fair, PNE Winter Fair, Rifflandia Festival, Shambhala Music Festival, and Vancouver International Film Festival.
There have been some suggestions in social media comments that the provincial government’s FIFA World Cup funding directed to First Nations would be far more meaningful and impactful in supporting the financial viability of events — with a combined total attendance of millions of people at such gatherings across the province and generating tens of millions of dollars in economic benefits — such as through the continuation of the BCFFE.
Last week, organizers of the Honda Celebration of Light announced the cancellation of the Summer 2026 fireworks festival due to growing costs and falling financial support from the provincial and federal governments, as well as lower corporate sponsorship and higher expenditures.
In an interview with Daily Hive Urbanized, fireworks organizers said the event’s annual budget is now hovering at just over $3 million, with the 2026 event facing a shortfall of just under $1 million. Over the last few months, they were hoping a combination of government and/or corporate sponsorship would fill that gap, but they were unsuccessful. The fireworks’ event production company also saw a $150,000 financial loss for the 2025 event due to similar challenges.
Honda Celebration of Light. (Destination Vancouver)
Each summer, over three nights of fireworks, the event draws more than one million people to the beaches and parks in and around English Bay. It is one of the largest public events in B.C.
The large crowds of residents and tourists generate significant spending at restaurants, bars, shops, hotels, and other businesses and services. According to organizers, the annual fireworks competition produces local economic spinoffs worth up to several hundred million dollars, with about $5 million to $6 million per year in Provincial Sales Tax (PST) revenue generated from this spending. They argue that this PST revenue is more than enough to offset the provincial government’s financial support for the event.
Organizers say that in addition to the discontinuation of the BCFFE, which was intended to be temporary from the outset, the Ministry’s Destination Events Program (DEP) has been a long-running annual grant funding program supporting many of the same events, including the Honda Celebration of Light. DEP is the new name of the previous Tourism Events Programs grant, which was dedicated mainly towards an event’s marketing expenses, and paused last year when the larger BCFFE was offered.
With a smaller $5-million funding pool, DEP’s 2025 program year had over 240 event recipients, with the events required to take place between June 2025 and September 2026. The Honda Celebration of Light was granted $100,000 for the July 2026 event — down from previous years, with $100,000 being the cap for all recipients in 2026.
The Ministry told Daily Hive Urbanized that the provincial government has provided the Honda Celebration of Light with over $3.3 million in financial support since 2006.
“We value the importance of events such as the Honda Celebration of Light and its role in bringing people together, supporting the business community and curating an impressive lineup of fireworks every year,” stated the Ministry.
“This is a challenging time for many industries; rising costs and lack of funding from other funding partners have made it increasingly challenging for organizers to host the Honda Celebration of Light. The Province has worked closely with the Vancouver Fireworks Festival Society to help ensure the event could continue with the support of annual grants and we’ve been proud to be a key and ongoing funding partner. We are continuing to work with organizers and other funding partners to try to find solutions that enable the festival to continue.”
It was emphasized that the BCFFE was previously developed by the Ministry as a one-time emergency funding for events impacted by the pandemic’s impacts of sending costs skyrocketing — in response to concerns raised by major event organizers in 2022 and 2023 that their events were facing cancellation.
In February 2025, dozens of major events and arts and culture organizations also signed an open letter to the provincial government, warning of a “looming crisis” in the events scene and urging the renewal of provincial grant funding — such as the BCFFE — or the creation of new replacement sources. However, this past year, the provincial government has increasingly pivoted towards austerity, with historically high annual budget deficits in the forecast adding to growing debt, driven by structural economic challenges and other uncertainties, including U.S. tariffs.
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