- by Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor
Those of you using poutine as your measurement of city council might need a few more facts first.
The recommendation to host this event came to Council in a staff report on Monday, January 24. The decision, it said, had to be made by Tuesday, January 25.
So what was council being asked to approve?
The date – Thursday, July 14 through Sunday, July 17. Setting up 4 days after the Hottest Street Sale and 10 days after a planned four-day Canada Day/Sound Waterfront Festival.
The location – the 800 block of 1st Ave East – from Tim Horton's drive-through to the city hall parking lot
The concept - according to the Ottawa-based organizers: fry-trucks serving up to 50 varieties of poutine, dessert trucks, a VIP area “with table service and dedicated washroom facilities”, music, and “a variety of family-friendly games and entertainment”.
The report said there would be no expense to the City but 15 hours of staff time, but the City was to supply access to power and water. There was no mention of who would would supply the needed porta-potties, hand washing sinks, picnic tables, barricades and police assistance for an estimated 7500 to 12500 people in that one closed-off city block.
The idea had not been presented to the DIA, downtown businesses, the Owen Sound Farmers' Market Board or vendors, the Community Services Committee or the Community Development, Tourism and Culture Committee. It was going straight to council for an agreement in principal.
Why that date? Because Timmins backed out for those days. We contacted the President of the Timmins Business Improvement Area (BIA) to ask why. His quick and cordial reply might sound familiar:
“We decided that 2022 was not the most appropriate year to host an event that brought a large number of out-of-town vendors to the Downtown. We often have the Beavertail people, that has proven very popular, however, they complement our events, and are not the focus. It is our intention to host a summer festival this year, but it will be a local event with as much local content as we can muster.”
There was no discussion in the staff recommendation, or at council, of alternate dates or locations. In early February, Wiarton scooped the Labour Day weekend for their Poutine Feast.
And the location? Most of the year's Poutine Feast events , just like RibFests, are set for large parks, civic centres or empty fields in growing big-box developments. The Town of South Bruce Peninsula took Wiarton's Bluewater Park out of their council motion to allow the event to be more inclusive and expand beyond the park- if necessary- without coming back to council for approval.
Whole communities know they stand to benefit from these events, but don't need parking congestion, porta-potties and extra garbage in their main business core. New customers and visitors are nice to have – gravy, if you will – but regular local customers pay the bills for most Owen Sound businesses.
So to be fair to Owen Sound council, the question was not “Poutine – Yay or Nay”, but a very specific recommendation without any consultation and constrained as to time and place. And the vote was 4-4.
To be fair to staff, a last-minute opportunity was dropped in their lap, seemingly with a tight “take it or lose it” deadline. The author of the staff report, Community Development Coordinator Viveca Gravel, was hired by the City to shoulder some of the additional workload for building the River District brand when the DIA chose to re-direct their funding from their own staff to free parking. So it was natural that Ms. Gravel would focus on the newly-developed phase one of the River Precinct.
But neither staff nor council seemed to think outside the box, as Town of South Bruce Peninsula did – getting a plum weekend and giving themselves lots of flexibility for leveraging the event with local organizations and businesses.
Poutine Feast was offering us a full menu, but staff put only one thing on the table. The best things that ever happen in Owen Sound are when we are cooking together.
Whether the event could have been made a success is one narrow question. How council makes decisions and the timelines and considerations that go into good governance is another. As we approach an election, it’s the decision-making processes and underlying values of council that need to be assessed.
Poutine Feast was a side dish. Don’t mistake it for the main course.