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Photo by Gerry Kahrmann / PNG

The park board will be invoicing the organizers of the Sunset Beach Park site for their share of expenses, the city said, although it’s not clear what that number will be yet. Likely the largest cost will be reseeding Sunset Field, which acting park operations director Howard Normann said was “trashed” by the event.

Dana Larsen, one of the organizers for the Sunset Beach rally, said his group has already agreed to pay for that.

Photo by Jason Payne / PNG

Larsen took issue with a several aspects of the news release, such as lumping the two separate rallies together.

“(We’re) not responsible for what happens at the gallery,” he said. “That’s a separate group, a group that refuses to work with the city or anybody else like we do. (…) They cost proportionately a lot more.”

The numbers from the city bear this out. According to the joint news release, the Sunset Beach protest racked up $127,245 in policing costs, while policing the Art Gallery event cost $43,425.

Larsen doesn’t feel his event’s policing budget — “something we have no control over,” he said — should be held against the rally. He pointed to the policing costs for February 28’s Trump Tower protest, attended by just over 200 people, which VPD said came to $105,000.

Furthermore, he felt the event was being demonized. If this was something other than a cannabis rally, he said, “the city would be highlighting all the revenue it brings to the surrounding community, all the business it brings in, people coming in not only from the Lower Mainland but also all over the world.

“They’re buying hotel rooms, they’re renting cars, they’re eating meals. So there’s a huge economic benefit to the community and Vancouver to having this event. With other community-type events those numbers get highlighted and promoted, but with ours the focus is on the relatively low cost of putting this on. That I think is a bit prejudicial.”

hmooney@postmedia.com

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