Article content

The Heritage Festival is arguably Edmonton’s most magnificent signature summer event, a family-friendly multicultural celebration of our city at its very best, which draws some 350,000 Edmontonians and tourists to Hawrelak Park to each year.

Yet the Heritage Festival has never been designated an official Edmonton “civic” event such as K-Days is.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Paula Simons: Marquee festivals face financial squeeze over Edmonton's miserly ways Back to video

As a designated “civic event,” K-Days pays no fees to the city whatsoever for services such as policing for its anemic summer parade.

The Heritage Festival, though, isn’t so lucky. And now, the festival is feeling an impossible financial squeeze, thanks to sky-rocketing policing costs, driven by a pending new EPS collective agreement.

In 2014, the three-day festival received a $110,000 grant from the city via the Edmonton Arts Council. It paid $69,880 back to the city for civic services, primarily policing.

Last year, the festival’s city grant stayed the same. But its civic services costs more than doubled, to $155,285.