Town council votes for reduced contribution to Taber Pheasant Festival

Nikki Jamieson
Vauxhall Advance
njamieson@tabertimes.com

Pheasants are just not that big of a deal in Vauxhall anymore.

During their regular meeting on May 2, Vauxhall council decided to decrease the size of their donation to the Taber Pheasant Festival.

The Taber Pheasant Festival was first held in 2011, and 700 pheasant-hunting enthusiasts tend to flock from all around Alberta and the surrounding regions to the Municipal District of Taber during that time. This influx of hunters tends to boost the hospitality industry in the Town of Taber and area.

“It brings a lot of traffic into the M.D. of Taber in general, even though most of the activities are in the Town of Taber,” said Richard Phillips, Vauxhall councillor.

However, since few hunters come up to Vauxhall during that time, council was left wondering why they should be a silver sponsor for the upcoming festival on Oct. 15-22.

This year, although Vauxhall plans on hosting a demonstration at their local shooting range, the question arose of whether they will get the money back from their sponsorship.

In 2015, the Town of Vauxhall had made a contribution of $1,500 toward the Taber Pheasant Festival.

“I don’t know whether those guys are going to drop $1,500 in town while they are here,” said Phillips. “I definitely think it’s a good thing to support, it’s good for the region. I’m not sure if we can get $1,500 worth of bang for the buck.”

Gold sponsorship for the festival requires a donation at least $2,500, silver sponsorship requires anywhere from $2,499 to $1,500 and bronze sponsorship is anything below $1,499.

“There’s just so many places to spend our somewhat limited resources. This is a good thing, but I’m not sure we can support to $1,500 given how many other (needs) are around here.”

“You don’t want to go too low either,” said Linda English, Vauxhall councillor, who had made a motion on the Sept. 8 meeting last year to do the silver sponsorship level for that year’s Pheasant Festival. “We’re not going higher, we stay where we are at.”

English put forth a motion that did not pass at three to two, since two councillors were not at the meeting then, to remain at the silver sponsorship level. Councillor Marilyn Forchuk then put forth a motion to sponsor the festival at a bronze sponsorship level of $500, which passed four to one, with English voting against.

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