The Haliburton County Farmers Market Association is still yet to confirm whether it intends to host a weekly market in Haliburton this year, despite executive Angel Taylor telling Dysart council Feb. 27, “getting this settled now is really urgent.”
The township and farmers market board have been at loggerheads for months over the event’s return to Head Lake Park, where it ran for 11 years before being moved to Rotary Beach Park last season.
Taylor previously told council attendance was down approximately 30 per cent at the new location, with market manager Mike Townsend saying he didn’t think enough vendors would sign up for a re-run.
Addressing the duo Tuesday, council doubled down on its stipulation the market can return to Head Lake Park providing each vendor pays an additional $5 per market day. The market typically runs for 21 weeks, from May to October.
Deputy mayor Walt McKechnie reiterated his belief this week that an extra $5 per week “isn’t a big deal.” He said he has discussed the issue with about 15 downtown businesses, who he claims are on council’s side.
“There wasn’t one of them that was saying we were doing something wrong after I explained it to them. We’re not here for a fight… we’re trying to do what’s best for the municipality of Dysart and all taxpayers,” McKechnie said, while emphasizing he’s “very supportive” of the market.
Mayor Murray Fearrey suggested the $5 fee – which would run approximately $4,200 for the season based on the market having 40 vendors each week – at a meeting in January. That was reduced from earlier suggestions that would have cost HCFMA $15,000 and $5,100 to bring the event back to the downtown park.
On Tuesday, Fearrey said Dysart would likely spend around $70,000 on park improvements this year. He has previously said the township incurs “significant costs” repairing damage in the park after a market.
“Our offer is the same, that $5 fee, with no conditions attached to it. We will put the money into a park fund,” Fearrey said. “I think we’ve been more than fair… we’ll be looking at other events too, we’re not just going to pick on you. At the end of the day, you have three options – go to [Rotary Beach Park or the Head Lake boardwalk] for free, or pay the money and go into [Head Lake] Park.”
Taylor asked if council was willing to consider any of the three options HCFMA presented to the township in a letter earlier this month. They ranged from council waiving all fees to run the event at Head Lake Park, to HCFMA accepting the $5 fee, providing council use the funds on repairs to the park proven to be caused by the market and provide invoices to the association. Council declined, opting for no conditions.
HCFMA reached out to 18 other farmers markets across Ontario to find out if any were paying fees to their hosts, Taylor said 15 of them ran their market with no extra costs.
Addressing the $5 fee, Taylor agreed that to most people it may not seem like a lot of money, but for small agricultural vendors who may already be losing money, it could be the difference between signing up or not.
“I was a [vendor] from 2009 to 2019. I never made a profit. I am not saying other small local farmers are in the same boat, but some are. We care about and are mandated to protect and encourage the little guys. This means they’ll have bigger losses, some of them, and that matters. To others, it’s a principal position [not to pay any increased rate],” she said.
Councillors Pat Casey, Barry Boice, Carm Sawyer and Tammy Donaldson all favoured implementing a $5 fee with no conditions.
Casey said, “I think we should carry on with what we’ve proposed, ride it out for this year and in the fall see how it all went, just like we did last year.”
Taylor said HCFMA was “still pulling things together” and likely won’t make a final decision until next week. “We’re quite disappointed… in council’s position.”
