Bluesfest, city spar over pitch to roll OC Transpo costs into ticket prices
Mark Monahan 'blindsided' by proposal, warns local artists, programs could face cuts
Tickets to Bluesfest could rise and the festival's local music contingent could shrink if the city goes ahead with a plan to roll the cost of supplying extra transit to major events into ticket prices, its executive director is warning.
Mark Monahan, who heads up both Ottawa Bluesfest and CityFolk, told the city's transit commission Thursday morning he was "blindsided" by the city's plan, which emerged after the 2016 draft budget was tabled earlier this fall.
.<a href="https://twitter.com/ottawabluesfest">@ottawabluesfest</a>'s Monahan at City Hall about <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ottcity?src=hash">#ottcity</a> trying to recoup $ from transit for big events/venues, only heard about it via news
—@KatePorterCBC"We are obviously encouraging a lot of people to use public transit," Monahan told reporters afterwards.
"It's one of the things we tout when we go outside the city. So it's really unfortunate they're coming back now and saying, well, because of that success, we want you to pay."
OC Transpo general manager John Manconi said in November he saw "new ways" to generate revenue by having transit costs included in ticket prices for events like Bluesfest.
The city has a bylaw that allows OC Transpo to recoup the costs associated with providing extra transit service to special events like Bluesfest, and Manconi said in November that they would be implementing that bylaw.
It's a levy that's already to applied to tickets for Ottawa Redblacks games, which raises the ticket price by about four dollars per game.
Manconi has suggested that applying the bylaw to Bluesfest specifically could generate about $200,000 annually for city coffers.
Coun. Egli says including cost of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ottawa?src=hash">#ottawa</a> transit into ticket price has worked for OSEG; Monahan says diff is OSEG started with that model
—@KatePorterCBCBut Monahan said Thursday that such a move could lead to cuts to community initiatives like the Blues in the Schools program, which deploys musicians to teach their craft in Ottawa classrooms.
The festival's approximately $85,000 budget for local artists could also be at risk, he said.
"These are all things that don't necessarily generate revenue for us," said Monahan. "And I think that's one of the things organizations look at when they start to look at cutting."
One other possibility could involve passing the levy along to festival patrons directly through a "quite significant" five per cent increase to the cost of a ticket, Monahan added.
Bluesfest sent an email survey to festival pass holders after the proposed changes were made public, said Monahan. He said about 40 per cent of respondents replied that they used mass transit to attend the annual two-week festival.
Other major festivals like Coachella don't have transit levies forced upon them, Monahan told the commission Thursday.
Tierney surprised as well
Monahan wasn't the only person surprised by OC Transpo's decision to enforce the levy, however. So was Beacon Hill-Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney, who sits on the transit commission.
Tierney told Monahan that he would hopefully be able to get a meeting with Manconi and Mayor Jim Watson ahead of Dec. 9, when the full city budget goes to council for approval.
"I think that [this issue] will probably get resolved before then," Tierney said.