Montreal does not intend to follow up on the suggestion of the director of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), Fady Dagher, to pass on the bill for security services to the organizers of festivals and cultural events. .
“For us, there is no question of adding an economic burden to our major cultural events and our important festivals,” said Mayor Valérie Plante on Wednesday during a press briefing at city hall. “And what’s more, we don’t want to compromise the security of these events. »
She added that other solutions would have to be found to the financial issues facing the SPVM.
On Monday, Fady Dagher maintained that the SPVM was examining the possibility of charging organizers of festivals and large events for costs related to security services, as is done in other Canadian cities including Toronto and Vancouver.
Since the start of 2023, police presence during various events and demonstrations taking place in the metropolis has cost the SPVM nearly $10 million in overtime. He is therefore looking for ways to reduce this financial burden.
Valérie Plante describes the optimization exercise undertaken by the SPVM as “healthy” in the context where the City has asked all its services to review their ways of doing things in order to generate savings.
Asked about the possibility of charging organizations that have significant financial resources such as the promoters of the Formula 1 Grand Prix, the mayor remained cautious. “We are very far from being able to tell you whether there are going to be festivals which will be favored or not. Generally speaking, we do not want there to be more costs for [organisateurs de] major events, but we will have to find solutions at the financial level in a more global way. »
The tourism and events industry welcomed the idea launched by Fady Dagher with concern, affirming that this proposal, if implemented, risked threatening the financial health of several organizations.
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