A new policy for how the District of 100 Mile House and community groups pay for traffic control for parades may be on the horizon.
Council discussed the matter during their regular Tuesday, March 25 council meeting. On the agenda was approving the closure of roads for the 2025 Dry Grad Parade and the 2025 100 Mile House Pride Parade. During the discussion, council revealed that it costs around $1,100 each time council shuts down parts of 100 Mile House to run a parade.
"We've never passed the cost on before, but we do need a policy that says what we're going to do," Mayor Maureen Pinkney said. "To just ad-hoc it is probably not the best way to do it."
Traditionally the district has shouldered the cost of traffic control on behalf of community groups and organizers. In recent years, however, the district has considered finding new ways to pay for this traffic control.
Coun. Donna Barnett said proper traffic control is a matter of safety, noting she has been involved in organizing parades for several years now. Barnett remarked she feels adding a cost of $1,100 that parade organizers would have to foot would reduce the number of parades happening in the community.
"I know it's a burden on (the district's) budget and I'm concerned about that, but I certainly don't want to see somebody who is providing entertainment for the public then couldn't afford to have a parade," Barnett said.
Chief administrative officer Tammy Boulanger noted when the district tried to place the cost of traffic control on the organizers before it just created a bunch of additional work for staff and organizers. Boulanger said it is almost easier for the district to do it from start to finish.
Currently 100 Mile House has four main parades that happen year-round: the annual Dry Grad Parade, the Pride Parade, the Remembrance Day Parade and the Santa Claus Parade. The Santa Claus Parade is the only one the district does completely in-house as far as traffic control goes, typically bringing in outside workers for the others.
Coun. Marty Norgren noted he would not be in favour of waving the fees for some parades and not for others. He did wonder if there was a way for the district to split the cost with organizers, adding 100 Mile House benefits from people coming to town and spending money on local businesses.
At the end of the day, Coun. Dave Mingo remarked that $4,400 is a hit on the district's taxpayers and staff's time in coordinating each parade. He believes council needs to come up with an "equitable solution" so taxpayers aren't paying for everything.
"If we put this out to the organizations, the event won't happen but at the same time, we want to look out for 100 Mile taxpayers. Is there a way we charge half price and if the event organizer is able to get sponsorship from a traffic control company then the price is covered by the traffic company?" Mingo asked, with staff responding some groups have tried this with no luck.
Todd Conway, the director of community services, said up until a few years ago the district would simply shut down all roads and intersections for such parades. However, WorkSafe BC has since said that to do so staff needs to be trained to do flagging.
"To train all my staff for flagging for four events of the year is just not economical," Conway noted.
During the discussion Pinkney allowed 100 Mile Pride Society spokesperson Saturn Zezza, who attended the meeting as a member of the public and helps organize the Pride Parade, to speak on the issue. Zezza told council they had done some research on potential options, noting there are two main companies, Cariboo Flaggers and 100 Mile Traffic Control, who can offer the services locally.
"The problem is if your event is on the weekend they are paying their staff overtime and it's a four-hour minimum. So even if it's 15 minutes of work, it's actually billed as four hours," Zezza explained. "It's been an interesting challenge for us to navigate cause we have definitely been looking at people who might have their flagging certificate but not necessarily a hired company."
They noted they talked to community groups in other communities facing similar hurdles who told Zezza they switched from doing parades to just marches, or rolling parades with no walkers and just floats. These come with their own challenges, however, such as slowing traffic and the fact organizers couldn't guarantee all marchers would follow the rules of the road.
Pinkney thanked Zezza for their input and doing some research into the issue. She agreed with Mingo that the parades benefit the community, but there may need to come a day when the district asks for some fee from organizers, such as $200.
"We need to look at what is a reasonable amount to expect a non-profit group to have to fundraise to make so the taxpayer isn't paying for the whole thing," Pinkney remarked.
Mingo proposed discussing the issue further during a future Committee of the Whole Meeting. Conway asked that council make a decision about the two current parades pending approval with Pinkney proposed for the interim the district continues to pay for the flagging services as a "grant in aid" until they come up with a new policy.
Council ultimately voted to discuss the matter further in the future and later approved the parade routes for both the Dry Grad Parade and Pride Parade for 2025. The Dry Grad Parade will take place on Saturday, June 21 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. while the Pride Parade will take place on Saturday, July 26 from 10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.
