Vancouver City Council green lights funding to keep Car Free Days afloat

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“Entire streets open up to people, instead of cars, local businesses have the opportunity to spill onto the streets and generate new customers, small vendors get a chance to sell their wares to huge crowds strolling past, and families come out, and neighbours spend time together in their communities,” said Maloney.

Last week, the Car Free Vancouver Society said that it made the choice to cancel the Main Street, Denman and Commercial Drive festivals after “careful consideration.”

“Rising operational costs, changes to grant funding and operational support, have moved us into an uncertain place, where the risk of proceeding at this time is too high to mitigate,” it added.

Maloney added that the event’s budget crisis was a symptom of bigger problems

“The costs of running events like this have gone up. Policing, sanitation, street control,” explained Maloney. “And when it comes to Car Free Days, we’re talking about roughly $30,000 to keep it alive.

“When costs go up and funding stays frozen, the burden gets pushed onto community organizations and volunteers.”

Councillor Peter Meiszner agreed that it was an iconic event and that he was supportive of the society receiving a one-time grant.

The urgent motion was amended during Tuesday’s council meeting to require the Car Free Day Society to prepare an event delivery plan before funding is released to them.

Maloney added that, as the funding would be provided as a grant, the vote needed a two-thirds majority to pass. Vancouver City Council voted unanimously in favour of it.

Car Free Days wasn’t the only summer event brought back to life by the City.

Earlier this year, we learned that a one-night Vancouver fireworks event was approved with a budget of $2 million.

This comes after the cancellation of the Honda Celebration of Light as the municipal government looks to keep the momentum going for British Columbia’s largest public event, while longer-term funding for a full multi-night festival remains uncertain.