With staff citing close to a dozen reasons Ontario’s Best Butter Tart event can't be extended this year, council came up with a few reasons why it should in the future.
As a follow up discussion from. Coun. Jim Downer’s previous notice of motion, the potential for a future expansion to the widely popular festival was given council’s keen eye at the recent regular meeting.
“I’d like to see our festival run into two days instead of one,” stated Downer. “I know there's a lot of reasons for not doing it, but I'd like to hear reasons for doing it – whether we have to bring in a band for entertainment or something to get our hotels full and our restaurants.
"I don't think they're being utilized on that weekend, and one day I don't think is enough to showcase our town.”
In response, culture and community manager Karen Mealing pointed out that “we know that our hotels and motels are pretty well full that weekend” resulting in benefits to restaurants as well.
However, she explained that the suggestion of expansion had been raised by the business community in the past, before laying out a dozen strong reasons why a second day could not be considered for the festival in its current state.
In brief, some of the reasons include: A previous survey of vendors noted it would be a challenge to bake the necessary quantity and keep fresh their products for two days; downtown street closures would hamper emergency services; security costs could triple; stretched lower attendance notwithstanding possible weather cancellations; entertainment costs could double; shuttle expenses would rise; and operation staff costs would double.
“We also have a small team,” stated Mealing. “To bring the festival into two days, we would require additional staff.
"We help with the public works palooza two weeks before the butter tart festival; the week before the festival is the kids fishing derby; about three weeks after the festival is Canada Day; plus we have cruise ships we're getting ready for. All the other summer events – the tugboat festival; our tall ships depending on the year; we also have to do music in the park and the new mural festival.
“So in the course of one week with butter tart, we’re each working at least 54 hours. If we were to make it two days, we're probably looking at 74 hours per staff in one week,” Mealing said.
Opening the discussion was Coun. Jamie-Lee Ball, who offered “a little out-of-the-box thinking” by suggesting the festival utilize a third-party vendor similar to the partnership between the tugboat festival and imported Rib and Beer Fest.
Downer approved of the suggestion. “I remember in days-gone-by we used to have a car show on the main street; it was very successful. What would be wrong with having something like that on the second day?
"Like, the main street was packed with people and old cars. Just something to generate some business for the local merchants.”
However, the strongest support came from Coun. Sheldon East who shared his experience as a downtown merchant, noting that his own store considered the butter tart festival day tognot be a great day for sales.
“I think that Jim's on the right track, and we should be looking at possibly adapting the butter tart festival," East said.
"If we don't, we could also run the risk of it not being successful because people eventually get used to it. And what Jim's doing is: he's expanding the opportunity for us to grow with this.
“By keeping it open for two days, we could really maybe focus more on a retail aspect of the second day,” East added. "The other thing that we should be watching as well is we have Barrie nipping at our feet wanting to throw their own butter tart festival.”
The remainder of council also showed support.
Mayor Bill Gordon quipped it could be called “butter tart plus” while suggesting it could be a tool to promote the town’s recently implemented municipal accommodation tax for the benefit of hospitality businesses.
Deputy Mayor Beth Prost called it “a fabulous idea”; Roberta Bald shared concerns on vendors keeping a fresh product; and Catherine MacDonald questioned the authenticity of data where hotels and motels were filled on the day of the event.
Downer conceded that the intent of his motion wasn’t likely for 2024, but suggested that a staff report could look into what it would take to enact for next year’s celebration.
Gordon replied: “I think Karen’s breathing a sigh of relief there, because I don’t know if the expectation was that we would be able to pull that one off this year. Phew,” he expressed to the laughter of Mealing and other staff.
The direction to staff was for a report to come back at a future meeting of council on the cost implications for the 2025 festival.
Information on Ontario’s Best Butter Tart Festival can be located on the town of Midland website.
Council meetings are held every third Wednesday, and can be viewed on Rogers TV cable channel 53 when available, or through the livestream on the Rogers TV website. Archives of council meetings are available through Rogers TV and on the Town of Midland’s YouTube channel.
