City to assist with Okanagan Military Tattoo in 2024

Sep 28, 2023 | 4:30 PM

The Okanagan Military Tattoo will be holding it’s event earlier than usual next year, and the City of Vernon has agreed to provide some financial support.

At the regular meeting Monday, Sept. 25, Vernon council received a request from the event organizers to provide in-kind funding for the 11th annual event.

The Okanagan Military Tattoo Society plans to hold the 2024 event in late-May, two months earlier than normal.

In its request to council, the society stated the event’s major funder is Heritage Canada, whose support “is conditional upon confirmation of cash and/or in-kind support from the applicant’s municipal government or equivalent authority.”

It went on to say the City of Vernon has provided “in-kind” financial support for the past several years, including $10,697.96 in 2023.

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The society must submit a funding application with a confirmation letter stating cash and/or in-kind support from the municipal government before the end of September, so Councillor Kari Gares moved that the city provide the financial support.

“I know within the staff report we’ve been talking about the grant process as something we would be working towards, it’s not something that we currently have in play right now, and the Military Tattoo needs to put their submission to upper levels of government by the end of the month,” Gares explained at Monday’s meeting.

“So if we are not providing them with some form of in-kind support, that might jeopardize their further grant funding that they would be receiving.”

Gares added that, once the grant process is in place, this type of support may not be provided, but as of yet that system was not in place.

In total, the city would provide an in-kind donation of $5,000 and waive up to $5,055 in facility fees to support the annual Okanagan Military Tattoo event at Kal Tire Place. The latter figure would include waiving the meeting room costs and facility rental rates on the performance days, use of equipment, forklift and operator costs, and staff costs for laying turf and underlay.

Councillor Theresa Durning supported Gares’ motion, though noted some organizations may still not know about the new grant process being developed and they should be fully informed of the changes so they can apply through the proper channels once in place.

Councillor Kelly Fehr inquired if the City of Vernon already provided funding or in-kind support to the Okanagan Military Tattoo Society, to which staff said they received $10,000 from the Municipal & Regional District Tax Program, or hotel tax.

Fehr said he “struggles with this” because they “could have applied for a grant during the grant cycle that we do twice a year,” adding “we have said we are moving towards a grant application process and I’m concerned about opening it up to liability. If you say yes arbitrarily to some societies and say no to others, and there’s nothing to say why we’re doing it one way versus the other, I’m not comfortable with it until we get a process in place.”

Staff noted that the Okanagan Military Tattoo Society did not apply for a city grant when they were open in the spring.

Durning responded to Fehr’s concern by stating that the city has not “put up a stop sign” yet and there hasn’t been proper communications with non-profits about the new grant process and what the expectations will be in the future.

City staff noted the grant process is expected to be put in place by the end of 2023, and that the city would communicate the changes with the user groups once the plans for the system have been finalized.

Gares reinstated that “we don’t even have terms of reference for this [new grant application process], we don’t even have the procedure or the policy put in place. This is something that staff is working on.”

She added they could deny the request and justify it by saying a new process is being developed, but added it would be unfair to deny the ask, especially if not providing the support could result in the group not qualifying for the funding from Heritage Canada.

Fehr responded by saying the new grant process has been widely published in the past several months, adding the Okanagan Military Tattoo did not provide financial documents with the request to show the need of the funds.

The motion was put to a vote, where it passed. Councillor Kelly Fehr was the sole vote against.

Councillor Brian Guy was not in attendance for Monday’s meeting.

by Liam Verster

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