The City of Vernon is championing their support for community events, but user groups still have questions.
Amid recent news regarding high facility fees in the community, the city released a Just the Facts notice, to provide clarity on what has happened.
The Morning Star has reported previously on the high costs for facility rentals in the city.
Creative Chaos, Okanagan Military Tattoo, Vernon Farmers' Market (VFM), Friends of the Library and the Western Canadian Taekwondo Championships are all events that have either been shuttered, severely stripped down, or moved to a different location because of the fees.
VFM rates tripled from 2022 to 2023 ($4,000 to $11,700) and will balloon to $30,000 in 2033.
In comparison, the season fee for is a maximum of $1,200.
Dan Proulx, the general manager of the Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce recently sat down with Peter Weeber, the city's chief administrative officer. Proulx was appreciative of the opportunity to meet with the city, but he still has concerns.
"One of our major concerns is still the large increase with the VFM," said Proulx. "The city does mention a number of supports to these non-profit user groups, but obviously the fees continue to escalate."
The city release also pushes back on recent reports of 32 per cent increases with groups like and Friends of the Library, stating that this is misleading.
"Recent headlines have reported a 32 per cent fee increase for some groups in 2025. This figure is misleading without context," said the city. "The updated rates reflect the phased implementation and aligns fees consistently across event types and venues. Event organizers continue to benefit from subsidized rates and City support."
Proulx said that the fee increase is not in a "phased" implementation, but rather an "instalment" payment.
"There is a 32 per cent increase that the Friends of the Library and Creative Chaos have, where the increases are paid over a number of instalments, which might help budget initially," said Proulx. "However, I am not sure how they would deal with the increase again next year if something comes up and they can't put on the event. It is a little bit confusing."
In 2023, the City completed an in-depth fees assessment, consulting with user groups, rightsholders, and residents and hired a consulting company, Innovate Planning, to "determine appropriate fee levels for the rentals and usage."
Innovate recommended a five per cent increase, which council approved.
"Based on public input, the city introduced clear, equitable fee categories in 2023 which are community rates for weddings, meetings, and non-revenue events, a privately sponsored rate for fundraising and ticketed events and a commercial rate, for for-profit venues," said the city.
Creative Chaos costs increased 27 per cent from 2024 to 2025 ($14,123.60 to $18,656) after their category was changed from community to private sponsored entertainment, despite Creative Chaos not charging admission.
The language surrounding the fee categories has been confusing to Proulx. In the Vernon release, the community rate was shown as being for "weddings, meetings, and non-revenue events."
, the language for community rates is the following:
Local community benefit activities, this category applies to all local non-profit groups, clubs, etc., whose event is closed to their members only and does not generate a profit or for community events that are free to all community members to access and does not generate a profit.
"There was confusion around our table on who that actually would apply to, because all non-profit groups need to generate revenue," said Proulx. "The reality is all non-profit groups need to bring in revenue, and all that money goes back to the community for their benefit."
The majority of revenue-generating activity in these events comes from the booths themselves, not the organization putting on the event.
"Creative Chaos should be surprised they were moved to the private-sponsored entertainment category because they are non-profit, and the event is free to attend and they had to sell vendor booths to cover expenses," said Proulx. "Those are vendors and they are not the customer of the city, the customer was the non-profit Creative Chaos."
In the 2023 report to council from the Innovate Planning Company, the company said it was "challenging to make apples-to-apples comparisons" to other municipalities and communities of similar size to Vernon because of "comparing amenities, the tax base, and subsidy levels were different"
At the time, Proulx pushed back on that statement, saying that it should be known where the fees and charges rate on the scale of highest to lowest among similar communities.
For example, the Western Canadian Taekwondo championships would have cost $4,000 for two days to rent the Kal Tire Place arena, while Kamloops' main arena costs around $1,500.
"For taekwondo, our facility wasn't competitive with Kamloops, so instead of overlooking the extra $2,500 to keep them here and adapt, we have given up the revenue and broader economic spinoff that would go into the city, which was estimated at $600,000," said Proulx. "I can appreciate that the city has budgetary constraints and they are trying to get things to work, but I think we need to look at being adaptable."
The city's Just the Facts notice championed a "record of tourism marketing."
"Between 2022 and 2024, the City of Vernon and Tourism Vernon invested over $540,000 to support events and facility use."
Proulx explained that it was important to compare other municipalities with Vernon, when they are competing with them to host events.
"Especially since the city is putting funds into event attraction and marketing, they need to know that the facilities that they are renting are competitive to make the events work in the community."
An event hosting grant program will be introduced in the fall, for providing "further in-kind financial assistance to qualifying events with local economic and cultural benefit."
"The city will continue to host annual user group meetings and work directly with organizers to ensure the best value for local events," said the city. "The new Active Living Centre, once complete, will also offer enhanced event-hosting capacity."
Proulx said it was an "important step for us" to chat with Weeber regarding concerns, and hopes the dialogue will continue in the future.
"We hope to further connect with the city and council to effect change in some of these user groups by our members," said Proulx. "Whether we get that opportunity, I am optimistic.
"The cost of not listening is that we may see some of these non-profit groups become unviable."
