Sicamous council will reconsider their decision to move the Canada Day fireworks display to August following a red and white uprising at town hall.
In a sight Sicamous residents may have never before witnessed, a large crowd of people, representing all ages in the community, appeared in front of the municipal civic centre Monday afternoon to protest a failed motion in council, and the ramifications it would have on local tradition.
That motion, made at council’s May 22 meeting by Coun. Charlotte Hutchinson, was to move the $20,0000 fireworks display, funded through taxation, back to Canada Day. Couns. Hutchinson, Joan Thomson and Fred Busch were in favour, while Couns. Terry Rysz, Don Richardson and Mayor Darrell Trouton were opposed. As per B.C.’s Local Government Act, when there is a tie, the motion fails.
The vote has sparked criticism and dissent in the community, and through social media and email list servers. And it compelled people such as Beth Braun to bring her children to Main Street on Monday and join the chorus of protest.
“I think it’s not about Sicamous, I think it’s about Canada,” said Braun about the importance of the July 1st fireworks
“I think it’s important that we keep tradition,” said 11-year-old Amy Wiebe.
Sharon Reed was of like mind – that the Canada Day fireworks display is part of a local and national tradition.
“It’s about family, it’s about country, and fireworks draw people to join together to have a good time and to have some camaraderie,” said Reed. “I know many of the people here and we take pride in Sicamous, we take pride in our country. It’s important.”
The demonstration’s high degree of civility took a bit of a dip when Rysz chose to address the crowd. With Richardson by his side (Trouton was in the Lower Mainland attending the Federation of Canadian Municipalities convention), Rysz took some jeers amongst the calls to put the display back to July 1st.
“OK, so that’s why we’re here, because we want to talk to you about this,” said Rysz. “There’s no doubt that with this turnout today, we as council, we have to make some serious decisions… and when we made the decision the other day, myself personally and Don as well, we felt we were making the right decision on behalf of the economics of this community.”
Rysz went on to say council would bring the matter back to the table. A special council meeting for this is now scheduled for Friday, June 7 at 4:30 p.m.
“We’ll make a decision… as mayor and council on what direction we’re gonna go…,” said Rysz. “You people have obviously spoken on behalf of us keeping it that way, we’re steering that way for sure… we still can’t make that decision here today.”
At least one of the protestors, Terry Sinton, questioned the need for another vote as she considers the first to be invalid – that the fireworks were moved to August last year only because in July Sicamous was still in a state of emergency.
“There was never a motion moving it to August 1st in the first place,” says Sinton. “And in order to spend $20,000 of taxpayers’ money on anywhere but July 1st, there must be a motion to move it to August 1st. That motion was never made. And by refusing to make that motion, the mayor forced councillors to make a motion to move it back to July 1st.”
Asked about the legitimacy of the vote, Rysz said this is something that staff is investigating.
“Staff is looking into those legalities and whatever they decide and come up with, it will be their call, so no, I really don’t have any comment on that,” he said. “It will be really interesting to see how that all comes out.”
Rysz had also been at the FCM convention, but had left that morning to be in Sicamous for the protest which, for him, was something of a surprise.
“I would never have thought the implications were going to be anything like this,” said Rysz. “But this is pretty heartwarming. You see the community and they got together, and us as council and the mayor, we have to listen to this…”
Rysz said his decision to support keeping the fireworks show had to do with the economy, and his preference would be to have fireworks on both Canada Day and B.C. Day in August.
“The patriotism thing and some of the statements made, it’s almost like council was opposed to Canada Day, but that was never the case,” said Rysz. “It was a matter of finding what we felt was allocating funds to what might be the best for the community.”
Eagle Valley Arts Council president Carla Krens says that if council votes to bring the fireworks back to July 1st, the entertainment will go on as planned, funded by a federal grant.
“We’ve decided if the fireworks are on, the band will be on and our entertainment,” said Krens. “If not, we withdraw and we’ll send our money, which is $1,800, back to Heritage Canada.”
