City of Vernon vows to meet with non-profits after backlash over rent at civic facilities
More non-profit groups are denouncing what they call significant rental fee increases imposed by the City of Vernon at civic properties used for community events.
“It’s hard,” said Ingrid Baron, chair of the Creative Chaos event. “It’s hard if we all go, ‘Who is going to rent these facilities?'”
Creative Chaos, Canada’s largest craft fair, brings in thousands of people every year.
The event is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and for the first time in its history, aside from the COVID-19 pandemic, will be operating at a loss.
“We tightened up on a few things,” Baron said. “We were going to have a bit of a bigger celebration thing, so we’ve tightened up there. We tightened up on our performing arts, dipped into some savings.”
The cost-cutting measures, Baron said, were necessary as the non-profit society has to pay a lot more this year to rent the venue space at the Vernon Recreation Centre.
“We were shocked because it was a 32-per cent increase from the year before,’ Baron said.
The Vernon Farmers’ Market is in a similar situation.
It rents the parking lot at Kal Tire Place every Monday and Thursday and it too is now faced with much higher rental fees.
“It’s significant, ” said Sarah Martel, president of the Vernon Farmers’ Market Society. “A big increase.”
According to Martel, the rent hike has tripled in just two years going from around $3,000 to $14,000 a year.
“It’s forced us to increase the price for vendors,” Martel said. “As a result, we have seen a decrease in the amount of vendors that come. If they’re making a loss every day, you know, where do they go from there?”
Martel said the market has decreased by about half the size it was five years ago, with only about 80 vendors left.
While part of that is blamed on the pandemic, more recently it’s the rising fees that are contributing to the shrinking market.
“It’s really sad because all the money that’s spent at the farmers’ market, and even the money that’s created and generated by these small businesses, it all stays in Vernon and it all goes to the Vernon local economy,” Martel said.
The Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce has been advocating for fairer fees for non-profit user groups since 2023 arguing it is in the community’s best interest.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t seen the results that we had hoped for,” said Dan Proulx, the chamber’s general manager. “So what we’re seeing now is unfortunately the effects of those increases that we warned the city was going to happen.”
Proulx referred to the long-running Okanagan Military Tattoo that earlier this year pulled the plug on the event and cited the rental fee hike as the final straw for the tough decision.
In an email to Global News, the city’s chief administrative officer, Peter Weeber, stated he’s aware of the concerns over the rental fees for city facilities and plans on addressing them.
“I will be meeting with these organizations in person, including the Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce, in the coming weeks to better understand their specific concerns,” Weeber said.
“If there are challenges, I want to harness the knowledge and experience within the business community to help address them.”
At the farmers’ market on Thursday, some shoppers questioned why the city is putting up barriers at a time when buying local is top of mind for so many.
“The timing is absolutely inappropriate, atrocious and ridiculous,” said Vernon resident Rhonda Kohen.
“I don’t understand it and where their heads are at because it hurts the city.”
Last week, the city stated it had to strike balance between fees paid by the user and subsidization through taxation needs.
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