CANMORE – Canmore council is being asked to cut an annual contribution to its public art fund in 2019 to help address a tough budget year for the municipality.
The public art levy is contributed to a reserve fund each year at a rate of $3 per person from municipal property taxes, but Chief Administrative Officer Lisa de Soto said the proposal is to skip that process next year.
She said cancelling the public art contribution in 2019 is one strategy proposed by administration to help bring in a budget that meets council’s guidelines and addresses the various revenue and expense pressures on the municipality.
“When we looked at the public art plan, their reserve was actually growing quite substantially and we did not have a plan to draw it down over five years, so a one-year suspension we felt was manageable and could help bring down taxes,” de Soto told council.
General manager of municipal services Sally Caudill said skipping one year of the $54,000 annual contribution to the reserve fund would not dramatically affect the department’s public art plan in the long term.
“In my opinion, stopping this for one year does not dramatically impact the plan or the ability to deliver (future public art projects),” Caudill said.
The proposed public art capital budget for 2019 includes $15,000 for a temporary installation, and in 2020 there is $15,000 for another temporary public art project on the pathway to the Canmore Nordic Centre. In 2021, there is also $35,000 for a public art project and an additional $50,000 for yet undefined public art space.
