City of Powell River Council will continue to host Thursday night markets, but with vendors having to pay a $25 fee per market.
Councillors will also direct staff to engage with the community in an effort to find another organization to host the markets beginning in 2025. The markets have been held on the gravel adjacent to the old Willingdon Arena site and vendors have not been charged a fee to participate.
At the April 30 committee of the whole meeting, manager of city property, partnerships and public relations Callie Matthews said the market was initially brought forward by an interested resident during COVID-19 times.
“We accepted this request and put on a free market for vendors as part of a reimagined, restart, recover campaign,” said Matthews. “As we are now exiting COVID-19 times, we are bringing this to the committee to determine how these events should continue or not continue.
“Staff conducted some research to see how other communities in BC operate their markets. It’s quite uncommon for a municipality to run these markets. Often, it is a not-for-profit group, or a chamber of commerce, or visitor information service that provides these markets.”
Matthews said when these markets are provided, typically there is a fee to the vendors. She said the Powell River markets have been reasonably successful over the last three years. She said it is indicated that the cost to the city is about $5,000 per year.
“If we were to look at the average number of vendors being around 35 per event, then, a small amount of maybe $25 per vendor to attend the event would cover the city’s costs,” said Matthews. “We have suggested that perhaps it’s an incentive to vendors if they were to sign up for the full nine weeks that we may be able to offer a discounted rate of 15 per cent.”
Councillor Earl Almeida said he was surprised to learn that vendors did not have to pay anything in previous years. He said he was happy to see the night markets continue. He asked how many vendors participated every single week last year.
Matthews said in total, there were 361 market space occupations over the nine weeks in 2023. Of those, there were 59 different vendors in total, and 19 of them attended all nine weeks. There were 11 others that appeared for at least seven weeks, so 30 vendors, or roughly half, were “pretty consistent.”
Almeida said he was in favour of continuing the night markets. He said, however, that when costs are involved, registration numbers could decline.
Mayor Ron Woznow asked if city staff had spoken with Powell River Chamber of Commerce about working this year to facilitate a handoff next year. Matthews said she hadn’t had a discussion with the chamber yet. She said she was awaiting council’s direction on whether the market would continue. Other community groups have reached out to say they would assist, so there is an appetite for the market to continue, she added.
Councillor George Doubt asked who could rent space at the market, and whether political party members could set up a booth.
Matthews said there are applications that vendors have to fill out. They are available on the city website.
“We make sure we have a good spread of vendors,” said Matthews. “I haven’t spent a huge amount of time on the application itself but I may make some tweaks.”
Doubt said quite a few markets have restrictions on who can participate, such as political groups.
Councillor Jim Palm said he was glad to see that with adding a vendor fee, there would be cost recovery. He asked if there had been any communication with last year’s vendors about the proposed fee.
Matthews said that conversation hadn’t been held yet. She said it was important to have the discussion at committee of the whole and city council level before taking it further.
The committee voted unanimously for council to continue to host the Thursday night markets for the 2024 calendar year, that vendors be charged a $25 fee per market, and that the committee direct staff to engage with the community to find another organization to host the markets in 2025 and onward.
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