Mayor Al McDonald didn't mince words tonight (Thursday) on a cable TV mayoral debate, declaring "The commitment ($80.000) from Council ended this year. This was the last year. I think Summer in the Park is dead. It's going to have to be something else. There are some ideas here which I think have merit. There's no question the new council will have to decide which direction it wants to go."
Attendance figures have been kept secret, but Councillor Mark King has suggested the losses will be in the six-figure range.
Deputy mayor Sheldon Forgette argued that summer festivals aren't created to make a profit.
"It's created to bring a community together. I'm a huge advocate of Summer in the Park."
Despite that, Forgette suggested bringing back the old Heritage Festival and put it back where it should be, the waterfront. And he thinks moving it back to the September long weekend would be a good idea.
"The students are here in North Bay and it would allow them to participate in the festival which would drive a lot more people there. Let's get more Canadian and local bands and on top of that bring back the smaller events."
Forgette said he had been in talks with a boat racing circuit that may be interested and was not phased by big financial losses, telling host Greg Estabrooks, "If you look at Timmins, they're losing multimillions of dollars. I don't think we should go that far, but I think a six-figure loss is not a bad loss."
Gary Gardiner feels the days of having big-time bands appearing at the festival is over.
"You can't please everybody and it's very difficult to have a big band because it has a certain type of music. So we have to go back to smaller events and we have to start a dialogue with the community to find out what would be better. Maybe we should have eight weekends in a row, smaller events that perhaps each weekend a service group would be involved to help them make money and go back to a family-oriented event so that families can bring their relatives back to North Bay and enjoy the weekend."
Candidate Will Boissoin added, "We're going to have to use some, I hate to say it, common sense and do what's right for the community. We can't have six-figure losses."
Boissoin has been talking to officials of the Red Bull Air Race and would like to add it to the festival.
The Chamber of Commerce two-hour event on YourTV covered a wide range of topics but it remained polite throughout with little new ground covered and tame by usual debate standards.
The election is October 22.
