Over the past few months, Victoria city council has worked to reduce the City’s spending in order to keep property tax increases to a minimum in 2026.
Part of the reductions that were made cut the annual Canada Day celebration fund to $110,800, which is much lower than it has been in recent years.
For context, in 2025, the City spent just over $400,000 on Canada Day festivities alone.
During this week’s committee of the whole meeting, Mayor Marianne Alto and Councillor Caradonna will bring forth a motion that would see this funding expanded upon in a way that would not increase property taxes.
Alto and Caradonna’s position is that in years’ past, the more robustly funded Canada Day celebrations have brought tens of thousands of residents downtown. In 2025 and 2024 both, it is estimated that around 60,000 turned out to the festivities.
Alto and Caradonna added that because Victoria is the capital city of BC, there is added pressure to put on a more spectacular Canada Day event than other BC municipalities.
Victoria’s Canada Day celebration is also unique because it takes place on the BC legislature grounds, but historically, the Province of BC has declined to cost-share the event with the City.
Some provinces offer to partially fund or co-fund Canada Day events in their capital cities, but BC is not among them.
Because this year’s Canada Day funding is nearly one-quarter of what it was last year, Alto and Caradonna are suggesting that additional funds be allocated from the City’s Major Community Initiatives and Event Grant (MCIEG).
The MCIEG was also scaled back in the 2026 budget due to the financial pressures of other major projects; there is currently $100,000 in unallocated grant funds.
“Given the challenges of funding Canada Day this year, and the importance of the event to residents and visitors alike, this motion proposes to allocate the MCIEG to that event for 2026,” they write in the motion.
Mayor Alto and Councillor Caradonna are recommending that council directs staff to allocate $100,000 from the MCIEG to Canada Day 2026.
Furthermore, they recommend that council requests the co-funding from the Province through the Minister of Tourism, Arts, and Culture and Premier David Eby.
If passed, this motion would mean that the City of Victoria was committing the remainder of the MCIEG funding to Canada Day, meaning no other endeavour could apply.
This matter will be considered during the January 29th committee of the whole meeting.
