The Royal Canadian Legion Prince George Branch 43 needs help funding this year’s Remembrance Day ceremonies.
Branch chairman Sheldon Clare made a presentation to Prince George city council Monday night asking for $18,000 in support for the annual ceremony.
“Our ceremony is an example for many, and incorporates three main elements, an indoor service, a parade to the Cenotaph, and a brief outdoor service at the Cenotaph,” said Clare. “These events are volunteer driven, but do incur certain costs. The main costs include facility rental, food and hot chocolate for youth, and sound production for both those present and for live streaming.”
He said in recent years costs have risen beyond the Legion’s control and its ability to raise funds to support the events has decreased over the last 30 years because of changes in how gaming is operated in B.C.
“Generally, we have been able to use gaming funds to support this event. However, the expenses have risen to the point that our meagre gaming funds are stretched past capacity to pay for the ceremony. Our ability to support our other good works is also dramatically reduced by that situation,” said Clare.
He noted that last year’s event had an incredibly good turnout of emergency services, cadets, military personnel and saw the largest attendance of RCMP members in the entire country. He said there were 100 RCMP officers on parade, which was more than they had in Ottawa.
Clare also explained that funds raised through the annual poppy campaign cannot be used towards the event as those dollars are earmarked for veteran support related programs.
Coun. Cori Ramsay explained that council would not be able to answer the Legion’s request before the Nov. 11 ceremony date.
“We do have an updated sustainable finance policy that requires a request for funding to be deferred to the next council meeting so that's a new policy and I think this is the first request we've had since that policy was implemented,” she said, adding that she would prefer to have this item come back to the next meeting with more information provided.
She suggested that if council decides to support the event, funds could be given after-the-fact but also noted that council only has $14,000 left in its council contingency fund for the remainder of the year.
Ramsay made a motion to refer the matter back to city staff to return to council with a report at the next council meeting which is on Nov. 20 and the motion was supported unanimously by council.
