One member of the public, clearly frustrated with having his repeated attempts over the past few months to find out the Summer in the Park attendance records, pressed Mayor Al McDonald and Deputy Mayor Sheldon Forgette for answers at Tuesday night’s mayoral debate.
He questioned why attendance records can be announced during the third period of a hockey game, but the numbers for the city's Civic holiday festival likely won’t be known until well after the election.
He wanted to know if those figures would be made public before the Oct. 22 election, so citizens know where the candidates stand in funding the festival going forward.
Both the mayor and deputy mayor told the crowd they don’t have those figures.
Deputy Mayor Sheldon Forgette said having attended the concerts, he agrees that attendance was poor.
“I don’t disagree with you, we should have those numbers right away, but I do support funding a festival.”
Mayor Al McDonald said the numbers normally come out in November or December.
“I don’t have the numbers either. It’s within the committee. We’re waiting for the numbers just like everyone else is, so we don’t have the details. Festivals are really important for our community, and the volunteers are doing everything they can to bring people to North Bay.”
Candidate Gary Gardiner said it would be a different story if the numbers were good.
“If the festival was really successful, and the numbers were really incredible, we would have heard about them the very next day.”
Candidate Will Boissoin would like to see the festival replaced with an event like an air race competition sponsored by Red Bull that would draw people to the area.
“I’m pretty sure they’re not going to come out (before the election.) They’re obviously scared about what happened. I started going after Red Bull and I made my way up the chain and we’ll get a festival that actually works and brings people to town instead of $240,000 of taxpayers money not coming back.”
Community Services chair Mark King, who attended the debate as an observer, attempted to clarify the situation for the crowd, explaining that he too, did not have the numbers.
“I dealt with the gentleman who asked the question two to three weeks ago, and I went right back to staff to find out why the figures weren’t out. Staff recognizes there was a shortfall, and that they have made special application for grants from the provincial government in order to soften the financial blow to that event. Celebrate Ontario I believe is one of the options,” said King.
“My understanding is those grant applications still haven’t been received from the province. They didn’t feel it was in the best interest of the organization to come out with figures that might change before council actually sees them,” said King.
“And to a certain extent, I have to agree with them. But by the same token, I think it’s not very difficult to give the attendance numbers of the two nights, that’s easily done overnight. So I patiently wait for them. It’s certainly something I’m interested in. There’s no question the community needs to recognize that it will be about a six-figure loss.”
Approximately 150 people attended the event organized by the North Bay Landlord's Association. It's the only public mayoral debate to be held during the municipal election.
