Jazzfest security, policing bill hits sour note
Organizers of Saskatoon’s largest summer festival say they are charged too much for security given that they now are forced pay for police officers to patrol their events in public parks.
Festival organizers who want to hold their events in civic parks are now required to pay the cost of having city police present, in addition to any private security they might already have.
A certain level of private security is mandated by the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority at any public event serving alcohol.
Bob Eaton, chairman of the Saskatchewan Jazz Festival’s board of directors, said the combined cost of police and the required private security is too high.
“We are paying for the same thing twice,” Eaton said in an interview Friday.
Eaton noted the festival already spends an estimated $27,500 for private security at its beer garden in Friendship Park. The police presence will add about $8,232 to that bill.
“It’s not that we don’t want to pay for police ... that’s fine if we can reduce the security,” Eaton said.
The Saskatoon Police Service charges festival organizers $98 per hour plus GST for each officer. Each officer must be on duty for a minimum of three hours.
Because festivals are not free public events, they should be the ones charged for the cost of policing, Chief Clive Weighill said.
“I don’t think the public taxpayer should have to pay for police at those events,” Weighill said in an interview earlier this week.
Eaton said while the Jazz festival does charge for tickets, it is not technically a forprofit enterprise and it has charitable status.
A spokesperson for the SLGA could not be reached, but Weighill said the police and the provincial body are in discussions about the issue.