Victoria City Council is facing backlash after passing a motion to look into altering spending on Christmas decorations.
City council was working their way through their 2019 budget this week when Coun. Ben Isitt noted that the $90,000 paid annually for seasonal decorations, including Christmas decorations, should be reconsidered.
“Tax dollars should not go to religious symbols,” Isitt told Black Press. “Decorations costs should not be expended on any particular part of Christmas practice.”
This could mean the city would no longer fund Christmas symbols, such as Christmas trees or Santa Claus.
READ MORE: City of Victoria considers scrapping funds for Christmas decorations
Since the story was published hundreds of people have commented on the idea, with nearly all of them against it.
“That’s a bogus argument,” said one Facebook respondent, Normanium Eldred. “All religions are allowed to celebrate openly.”
Another spoke of an excessive need of political correctness.
“Political correctness at it’s best,” said Stephen Fortner. “Christmas is a Canadian tradition and keep your hands off of it.”
Others said that there was some logic to the idea, but it had missed the target.
“I think the money and effort will still be spent to decorate our city during the holidays, just using certain things and avoiding anything ‘religious I have no problem with that,” said Dan Bennett. “I do have a problem with our council wasting time ‘fixing’ something that wasn’t there.”
Since the discussion began a petition to rescind the decision emerged on change.org, and as of Tuesday morning had garnered over 360 signatures.
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