The North Cariboo Joint Advisory Committee has rejected the idea of funding a movie night in Quesnel at Tuesday (May 19) night’s meeting, at least as the proposal stands.
A movie night was proposed for September 10th in Lebourdais Park at a cost of $5,000, with half of that bill paid for with funding already in place for Canada Day that isn’t needed.
It would be free to the public that attends.
Councillor Martin Runge was among those who were a little gun shy.
“It goes from our past history of we’re going to get sponsors, we don’t get sponsors, we’re left holding the bill at the end, this is where my. And I know it’s not a big amount compared to our last one that we went under on, but I love the idea of standing back a little bit and saying is there someone else that we can offer, maybe we offer them a donation of some sort and for that we get a movie night in another location where someone who has the equipment already.”
Runge was referring to hosting a concert back in June of last year that resulted in a loss of more than $20,000.
Councillor Mitch Vik also thought a little more time would be potentially beneficial.
“We may have ideas collectively on how to offset some of those costs through our networks in the community. I know there were groups hosting movie nights last year and they had their own screens so I don’t know if there’s opportunities to give us a few moments to call church groups that were hosting these kind of things, maybe they can provide equipment, I don’t know.”
Another concern around the table was potential bad weather at that time of year, something that Director of Community Services Jeff Norburn said had hurt attendance at previous movie nights in the community.
Jim Glassford, the CRD Director for Area I, asked about holding it earlier in the year.
Norburn said the reason for it being in September was to piggy back with an event in Prince George at that time to bring the cost down.
Suggestions were made to hold it indoors if needed in one of the arenas, at the theater or even Bouchie Lake.
Norburn questioned the arena as an option.
“Perhaps the soccer complex would be an option. I think the arenas would be a challenge that time of year because the ice is going to be in. But that would definitely be something that I would get the Events Coordinator to look into, contingency planning, but our costs would be the same whether the weather was poor or not, it’s just that participation would be lower than you would hope.”
The proposal was defeated with Councillors Vik and Runge opposed along with northern CRD Directors Barb Bachmeier, John Massier and Glassford .
Norburn said that the Event Coordinator would continue to try to find partners and funding with the hope of hosting the event without further funding from the committee.
