Heidi Lorenz did not pull any punches.
“I have a real hard time saying that one group in this community is getting a freebie where nobody else is … we can't afford to offer our facilities for free for everyone. Wouldn't that be a nice thing to be able to do?”
The Gravenhurst mayor was opposed to a motion asking for the waiving of fees at the Terry Fox Auditorium for a national event in town next year.
At the heart of the matter is a request to the council from the YWCA of Muskoka, which is hosting the 2024 YWCA Canada annual membership meeting in June 2024 in Gravenhurst.
YWCA officials have asked the meeting requesting fees, $2,579.93 for the rental of the Terry Fox Auditorium, meeting room, kitchen and Entandem music licence, be waived for the use of the event.
“It's such a good service organization. We have the facilities … and I hope I have the support to give this to them, “said Coun. Jo Morphy, who moved the request.
Coun. Erin Strength, who seconded the motion, said she didn’t see the waiver as a precedent-setting as this is a one-off event for the YWCA, adding she sees it as an investment for Gravenhurst.
“In my head, I can liken this event to the Ontario Heritage conference that will be happening next year as well, in which we will be discussing how much money we're going to be providing to that conference … and encouraging people to come back,” she said.
Coun. Randy Jorgensen said he was opposed to the waiver, saying the town had to be careful when dealing with these requests “on a regular basis.”
“There's a lot of charities out there that are looking for donations from the town, and I see it simply as that … I think that our fees already reflect the taxpayers’ donation to non-profit groups when they are renting our space,” he said.
Lorenz said there are a number of community groups that have routinely paid the lower rental rate, and while she does support the YWCA and its programming ("Nobody's saying they're not worthy of it, we're saying we can't afford it”) she suggested the group should have looked at other avenues, such as applying to the Terence Haight program to fund the convention.
“You say it's not precedent-setting. There's no such thing as precedence because we're not talking about law here. Everything we do is on a one to one … however, that doesn't stop the message from being said to all of our non-profits, you can have the space really up to do with that. You don't have to go through the Terence Haight program … that's where I stand on it. I think it's really important,” she said.
Morphy said the town was not “giving up all this money. I just think our service organizations deserve a little bit of our, you know, respect.”
“I’m going to make a correction there, “ Lorenz stated. “This is not about respect; that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about fairness,” she said.
Jorgensen said he agreed with the mayor's comments wholeheartedly.
“It is about fairness … we do recognize the wonderful work that all these organizations do. That's why we have a reduced rate, and I think it's important to treat people fairly.”
In the end, councillors amended the motion to alter the waived fee to $2,478.09, leaving the YWCA to pay the required Entandem music licence fee.
The motion passed with Jorgensen and Coun. Peter M. Johnston voted against the motion.
