Question #6: Julia OGrady at the mic. Director of Events, City of Ottawa said they are maxed out for events and they want to send more events here to North Grenville. I was told municipality would never get involved in events. They bring major dollars to our community over a single weekend. I would like to see how the candidates would support events. Gordon: youre right we have to get involved. we have a partnership with Mr. Besharah (Kemptville Live Music Festival). Slowly but surely we have come to the realization we have to partner with associations. Ribfest, Dandelion Festival. We can and should do better. But what we need is a hotel. It will be built end of 2015-16; problem is organizers look for hotel space. Onasanya: part of my platform is more festivals. I would work toward more music festivals, art festivals, so people will travel in from outside our municipality to help our small businesses. Johnston: promotion of NG is important to all of us. Events can be a big part of that and if Ottawa wants to send some, we can take them off our hands. Corporate responsibility is important - not just on the municipality to carry it off. We need to do our research on the festivals. Maybe we will finally get that hotel we so desperately need and I support any opportunity to promote culture in our community. Sutton: Im sure some of those festivals are a great fit for NG. The cost cant be all on the municipality though. We need partnerships. NG has taken initiative with festival handbook, etc. Some progress has been made but obviously not enough. Armour: This council is on a disconnect when it comes to reality. AG shows (dogs, chickens) were told to leave our municipality. Scared of bird flu. Our market farming show got moved to Kingston. This council wouldnt even answer our questions. There are big opportunities here. Cheese shows, food shows. Processing. Not with this council. Ive been trying to do it. Other people asked. They were turned down. Even the Mayor turned it down. This council will not support industry or agriculture. Barclay: wouldnt it be nice to get the International Plowing Match to come to Kemptville? My experience on board of 2014 Dandelion Festival underlined problems with council to get festival back on the street. Layers of red tape. It was a valuable process to go through but very costly to the festival. Then we had to wait 2 weeks for rubber stamp from county council. Cost us time in fundraising. Board is volunteers. Many man hours. There is more the municipality can do to attract and accommodate events. Besharah wasnt treated very well in the past so Im glad hes moving forward with his local event. They are big economic drivers and we need more of them. Forbes: I was a CEO of annual sales $10 million dollars Chrysler dealership. You have to brand and go after your niche. Make it easy for people to come in and do business. We cant have 10 to 20 forms. It shows we dont want the business. Why dont we do the paperwork? Supply the security. We get our cost out of it and tack on 5% and then do the marketing for them. Its called partnering and negotiating. We cant have these facilities sitting empty. We need the right marketing approach. Tobin: The theatre and hallways do not sit empty. 17 events this month alone. Staff does provide assistance with festivals. Yes it is a county road so we have to provide the liaison. We have to use the assets properly so people come and stay. Staff has worked with clients providing insurance, etc. and I support them. The liability for road closures, etc. are a new reality for a muncipality.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 00:45:10 +0000
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