Councils opt to lower the cost of Wellesley’s special event permits

SPECIAL EVENTS WERE ONCE again on the docket at Wellesley council, as the township revised the costs for permits to hold such activities.

At $500 (or three per cent of all the entry fees collected from the event, whichever is higher), the special event permit is required for any large scale events held outdoors, like festivals and gatherings, liable to affect traffic or township infrastructure.

Deciding the cost was too steep, councillors meeting Tuesday night opted to lower the permit to $100, or three per cent of the entry fees collected from the event. The permit fee would also now be waived completely if the event was deemed to have a direct benefit to the township, with all the money raised from the event going to benefit township residents.

Coun. Herb Neher, however, questioned whether the township was, in effect, discouraging events from being held in the township.

“Are we here to promote our area? Is the objective to support, is it to discourage events? Is it to make money? What is our objective?” he asked his fellow councillors. Special events, like the upcoming Harvest Half Marathon being run next weekend to support Kenyan Kids Foundation of Canada, brought newcomers and tourism dollars to the township, he reasoned.

Neher also took issue with the alternative three per cent charge on the entry fees collected by events. He questioned what constituted an “entry fee” for an event, suggesting the case was not always clear cut, especially for charitable events.

“I have concerns with the three per cent,” he said. “A lot of these events, even though they may have an entry fee of $40, it’s not an entry fee per se. Maybe that that includes a T-shirt, it includes maybe having a hotdog or a drink ... but we are including that [when] they incorporate that into a fee.

“And by the time they get finished paying for these Tshirts or hotdogs or whatever it may be, their bottom line for a lot of these charities is only about three or five per cent profit. And if we’re chewing at that three to five per cent profit ... there’s hardly anything left for these charitable donations by the time we get into the three per cent of the profits.”

The decision to lower the permit fees from $500 was prompted after two charities, the Grand River Hospital Foundation and the Kenyan Kids Foundation, had requested councillors to waive the $500 charge for their upcoming fundraisers in the township. Councillors agreed the $500 permit fee was too high, and that the events posed a minimal cost for the townships.

“We have to say, do these events add or subtract to our community. Is it something positive? Because I honestly cannot think of anything negative with some of these [events], especially as I’ve said, the charities,” said Neher.

Coun. Peter van der Maas noted, however, that charities and other event holders could approach council to waive or reduce the special event permit fees. Ultimately, council decided to stick with the new $100 charge, or three per cent of the event’s entry fees.