I hope you really enjoyed this year’s Tour de Delta, and the Boundary Bay Airshow too, because they’re not quite as free as the admission price would lead you to believe.
A recent civic report on the financial implications of the two staples of Delta’s summer calendar found the city spent in excess of half a million dollars to stage the marquee events this year, a number that’s grown large enough it should necessitate a thorough cost/benefit analysis over at city hall.
I wouldn’t necessarily consider myself a cycling fan, nor an aircraft aficionado, but I have to say I do enjoy both events, at least in moderation. Both have a spectacle-like quality to them, a thrill quotient that draws me, and others, in, although I’m usually ready to fold up my chair before either has come to a conclusion.
You don’t want to look at everything solely from a bottom line perspective or Delta would soon turn into a no fun city, but when costs reach a certain point, and I think half a million bucks qualifies as that point, it’s incumbent on our political leaders to determine whether the city and its residents are getting a good return on their investment.
The primary value of the two events is to provide locals with something to do on a summer day, with a secondary feature being potential economic spin-offs, although the remoteness of the Boundary Bay Airport limits those impacts for the more popular airshow. It’s then a case of weighing those benefits against the costs as well as against what else you could get for that money.
I imagine if you sat a group of taxpayers at a table and told them to come up with 100 things Delta could do with half a million bucks, hosting a bike race probably wouldn’t make the list. Not sure an airshow would either. Does that mean we shouldn’t hold such events? Not necessarily, but the lengths (read costs) it takes to pull them off has to factor into the equation.
There are many other ways to spend that kind of money, ways that could have far more of a lasting impact on the community than just an afternoon, or weekend, of summer fun. I’m not suggesting they be removed from the calendar, but if costs aren’t kept in check, that kind of outcome becomes more and more inevitable.
