2026 Fireworks Liquor Permit (Item B)
Motion 11 · Park Board Meeting, April 27, 2026
Vote
Transcript
56 segments
Thank you. I'm happy to introduce the presentation seeking approval to host a public fireworks celebration at English Bay Beach Park. Associate Director Octavia Silva will guide you through the presentation, outlining the event concept, delivery approach, and anticipated benefits of the event.
Great. Thank you, Director Brody. Hello. Hi, Commissioner Herr. Just a second. Can you turn your camera on, Commissioner Herr?
Okay. We will come back to you after the presentation. Actually, my work computer is logged on right now. Okay. Can we mute her? Okay. Keep going.
Okay. Again, Commissioners, thank you for your time this evening. So the purpose of this presentation is to present the 2026 City of Vancouver Public Fireworks celebration to the board, seek the board's approval for the application for the use of English Bay Beach space, and authorize the general manager of the park board to approve the detailed terms and conditions. Before I launch into the slide deck, I wanted to introduce Michelle Collins, who's the city's director of tourism and destination events, as well as my colleague, Yuna Fluen, who's in the gallery as well. Thank you.
So just by a little bit of background, I think as commissioners know, the Celebration of Light fireworks festival was cancelled or announced in November of 2025. At that time, the city's mayor had publicly expressed disappointment over the cancellation and also the reduction in senior government funding and had affirmed the city's willingness to explore ways to ensure that a fireworks festival takes place in the summer of 2026.
Continuing on background, City Council did approve a motion in February of this year directing staff to plan and deliver a one-night public fireworks celebration in the summer. Staff have initiated discussions and some of the preliminary preparations for a one-night fireworks event and staff are continuing to work to finalize the event date and operational details.
In terms of the proposal that's coming before the board this evening it is for the city seeking approval to deliver a free open and accessible one night for fireworks celebration at English Bay Beach Park in summer 2026 with the final date to be confirmed after more detailed operational planning and reviews and the initiative is expected to follow a similar delivery model to the celebration of light fireworks festival albeit with less features and also less complexity.
So what the event will include is, you know, in addition to the fireworks display, it will feature a modest lounge space on top of the English Bay bathhouse with accommodations for roughly 100 guests and a smaller selection of food trucks than what you would have seen at a previous Celebration of Light fireworks event. What the event will not include in terms of reduced complexity will be there will be no drone shows. The Anouk Shooks Lounge hosting space will not be taking place. The large grandstand seating area that often required a couple of weeks of setup time will not be included in this year's event, nor will some of those larger activations at Morton Park and some adjacent spaces.
In terms of the event undertaking the event production will be outsourced to a qualified team with demonstrated experience. There is a notice of intent to contract that was issued I think a couple of weeks ago that I think was closing today with the intention of engaging Brand Live group as the production partner.
Again from a staff perspective I think and the board is probably familiar with Brand Live as well. They're a group that was responsible for delivering the celebration of light on behalf of the Vancouver Fireworks Festival so they're intimately familiar with both operating in that space and delivering the requirements for a successful fireworks festival. The park board would act as an event facilitator in much the same way that they do with Celebration of Light and then the event itself would be supported by the review and evaluation committees at the city for major events such as FEST and then this would also be subject to the review and collaboration of the FIFA World Cup 26 host committee.
terms of just a very high level site plan it would again roughly be utilizing little pointers not working but essentially the same footprint as the celebration of light you see the beach area on the screen the area in sort of that darker pink or light purple area would be the top of the um the bathhouse roof that would serve as a lounge area You see the arrows in red pointed to ingress and egress routes, so very similar to a celebration of light footprint. And then again, still finalizing what the food truck spaces would look like. I think there's some strong collaboration that Michelle has led on conversations with the West End BI as well to have an appropriate balance of food trucks, but then also support for the businesses in the West End to take advantage and be able to benefit from the evening.
In terms of benefits, well, large-scale engagement of residents and visitors. We know from the previous Celebration of Light events that have existed for the past couple of decades that there's a lot of traction and support and appeal for both residents and visitors to the fireworks festival. It allows for building of that community connections and civic pride. Obviously, collaboration support for local suppliers and producers. And then it helps to promote Vancouver as a destination for tourism. It supports our longer-term economic activity and enhances the city's brand development. terms of some key considerations from a financial perspective all of the expenses related to the delivery of the festival would be covered by the organizer which in this case would be the city of Vancouver there would be no out-of-pocket costs for for the park board beach and park access from that perspective the organizers will look to develop a plan that minimizes any restrictions to public access What's worthy of noting here is that the set-up time and the tear-down time compared to a regular celebration of light festival is considerably lower. Basically, just four days, two days on the front end, and then two days on the back end to both install and remove the requirements. And then there would be a plan to notify the neighbourhood around the event details and the event parameters.
So in summary, the 2026 public fireworks celebration does present an opportunity to continue to deliver a popular fireworks event to Vancouver residents and visitors. It would be an event that is fully free, open to the public, and will showcase obviously the city's natural beauty, both the waterfront spaces and some of our adjacent neighbourhoods, and contribute to the city's cultural, tourism and economic vibrancy. Staff have considered the many aspects of this proposal. It follows very much in line with what we've done for the past couple of decades in terms of fireworks festival delivery in the city. So we're quite confident that it can be implemented successfully. So the recommendations that are coming before the board this evening is that the Vancouver Park Board approve an application from the City of Vancouver to host a 2026... public fireworks celebration at English Bay Beach Park, with all arrangements to the satisfaction of the General Manager of the Park Board, and that the Park Board also approve an application from the City of Vancouver for a special event permit from the BC Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch to serve alcohol at the aforementioned location with a maximum capacity of 100 guests. Thank you, and I'll turn it over to questions. Great, thanks so much. Commissioners, if you have questions, please queue in. Commissioner Jensen.
Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. The summary says this event will be free and fully accessible to residents and visitors, yet there is a 100-person maximum capacity of guests. Will those guests be able to be free and fully accessible, or will that be a ticketed or a VIP event?
That would be by invitation. It's just forecasting that there hopefully is an opportunity where direction is this is a one-off event that we find a model for the future to order to consider a sustainable free public event inviting potentially some other levels of government, both provincial and federal and other interested sponsors that might want to continue with the future forward events. It's just an invitation space should we need to host any officials that would have to consider that and have a place to watch and observe the event.
And who will be providing those invitations?
I don't have the direction yet, but we'd be able to sit down with staff and kind of come up with the right, correct invitation list that would be appropriate, working with the production company who has the experience with sponsorship.
Thank you.
Commissioner Howard, online.
uh yes thank you um as i do not see any potential dates could you uh are you planning to do this at the same time uh late i think late july early august as the symphony of fires fireworks were sorry
That is covered in the in-camera portion that was before this meeting, Commissioner Howard. Yes. You were absent for that meeting, and that was discussed in the in-camera meeting. So that will be released by the city.
Is there any reason why the dates cannot be publicized, all the potential dates?
Yeah, that's in-camera as well. So that was discussed in-camera, Commissioner Howard, so the staff can't answer that at this time.
Thanks. Okay.
Do you have any further questions?
Well, the question is I'm wondering why the dates have been kept secret.
Okay, that was your question, and I answered it already that that was answered in the in-camera meeting. Commissioner Hare, you're up next.
Thank you so much for your presentation. I'm just wondering for, because this is a little bit different than what we've done previously, but are we looking for sponsorships as well? And are we going to be hoping to do any sort of themes in regards to the fireworks?
The direction of the city being able to host the event is due to the fact that the Celebration of Light and the Fireworks Festival Society were not able to attain enough sponsors in order to support the event in its current format, and that's why it went away. So in order to support in a short timeline and period, the city council approved a public funding envelope in order to ensure that there'd still be a one-night free public celebration event The timelines are pretty short, and it is not warranted, and the capacity of sponsorship dollars available would not support this event in the timelines presented.
Okay, thank you so much.
Commissioner Verity.
I just wanted to know why the original event was cancelled, and will this event be following similar protocols in terms of rules and regulations and charges?
The Vancouver Fireworks Festival Society did note that they were not able to sustain their funding model due to a reduction in funding available from the provincial government and then the complete federal government not supporting and then sponsorship dollars not fulfilling to the maximum level that they needed in order to assure sustainability. So they did give notice that they would not be able to sustain an event and chose not to come forward as the event production company. And then I can answer, yeah, in terms of the review and planning processes, it would be going through a very similar process to what Celebration of Light went through in terms of both those steps, in terms of fee recoveries for the park board and the overall permit fee model. Thank you.
Commissioner Digby.
Um so uh thank you I you know I'm not going to um ask you questions about the appropriateness of this event um uh because I'll take that on a separate line of discussion afterwards. What I would like to ask you is um apparently two two million dollars is coming from the city for this event and what fraction what portion of that uh just order of magnitude can you give us is actually park board expenses that you it's going to be at zero cost to the park board so what's the sort of order of magnitude can you help us understand?
Yeah, the estimate in terms of few recoveries that would be, like park board services that would be exposed to expenses that would be recovered would be probably in the magnitude of $10,000 to $15,000.
Okay, so that includes beach cleanup the next day, beach preparation, lifeguards during the event.
That is correct.
$10,000 to $15,000. Okay, so that's out of $2 million. So park board's not making a lot of money off of this.
Now, here's actually my bigger... You know, there's a very dry forest. There's going to be a very dry forest at Stanley Park this summer. It's already, we're in the level two water restrictions across the city. And I just want to ask, has preparations been made to make sure there's a lot of smoke and fire? I mean, I'm concerned about the wildlife habitat, but you can't answer that. I'm mostly just concerned about the fire and smoke impacting Stanley Park. Do you have... Will that be properly managed?
So I can assure you that it will be properly managed. One of the things that we have done over the last few years with Celebration of Light is implemented some special protocols around traffic management, closing off certain park areas. So that, again, if it warrants it based on the attendance expectations, then we would be doing the similar processes and protocols in the park to prevent both the congestion, and then also some of those fire risks and other safety issues.
Commissioner Jensen.
Thank you. Commissioner Baskin-Vansky is ahead of me in the queue of asking a question already. I can wait for Commissioner Baskin-Vansky.
Thank you for noting that. Commissioner Baskin-Vansky.
Oh, thank you.
Yeah, I'm excited to see some fireworks. But there's a... So in previous years, the celebration of light happens kind of late July, and there's usually some other big cultural events that happen around then, and the city's usually coordinating around Pride. And so I'm curious if... In the event that that's one of the weekends that's being considered, would the 2SLGBTQIA plus advisory committee be consulted with any planning around that?
Currently, the safety and operational plans and all the agencies have come together in order to determine that date. And if it's warranted, then they will be consulting with all applicable parties for the safety and assurances of the planning to coordinate multiple events in one weekend.
Commissioner Jensen, do you want to queue in for a second round? Okay. I'll just ask a quick question just about, I know it's sort of, I just want to make sure it's crystal clear that any additional fees or costs the park board might incur for garbage pickup are being covered by the event costs, so the park board is not being hit with additional costs due to this event. Just double-checking. That is correct. Thank you. I just want to make sure that's crystal clear for everybody. Okay. Any further questions from commissioners?
Okay, so no further questions. Thank you very much for your presentation tonight. Thank you for your time. Thank you.
Okay, we will be moving on to speakers on this item. We have two registered speakers. Our first speaker is Rick Hulbert. If you can come up to the podium, state your name, who you are presenting, and your position on the matter, and you will have five minutes, which is up on the board.
Rick Hurlbut, I'm speaking on my own behalf, and I am speaking against the motion. $2 million.
That's the price tag for this one-off, bread and circuses, election year, zero means zero charade. How many full-time staff positions could $2 million provide? 20? 30? Certainly more than enough to hire a full complement of lifeguards for the upcoming summer season. This whole business has put Park Board between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, you're tasked with providing the public with engaging activities open to everyone. But you're also being asked to participate in an exercise that is clearly contrary to Council's own declaration of civic belt tightening. The hypocrisy is staggering. If Council truly wanted to get the most bang for the public buck, that $2 million would be better spent supporting existing community-based events in desperate need of government funding. The Vancouver Pride Society alone anticipates around $30,000 for insurance coverage of its parade and festival. As a significant public event attracting tens of thousands, their insurance premium is probably on the high end. That said, divide $2 million by $30,000, and that's close to 70 community events whose insurance bill could be covered. Probably more. Of course, if Park Board votes down the requested permit, that $2 million isn't likely going to go anywhere else. It certainly won't be granted to Park Board. It's even possible that Council will find creative ways to punish Park Board as retribution. And Park Board will be accused of furthering the city's reputation as no-fun Vancouver, which is never good going into an election year. I realize that you're probably going to vote in favor of the motion regardless, although I wish you wouldn't. Taking a stand against Council's cynical electioneering isn't going to change anything, and the potential blowback from the community is very real. But I want it on the record that I, for one, am deeply troubled by how Park Board has been left to deal with this messy situation. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Rick, do any commissioners have questions for Rick? Seeing none, thank you so much for coming to speak tonight. Our next speaker is... Aaron Jasper, also a former park board commissioner. He said in person, but he might be on the line. Anyone on the line?
He is, I don't think he's here and I don't think he's on the line.
Yeah, so I don't think he's going to be speaking, unfortunately. So we will be moving on. Thank you very much. That brings us to the... They said other under the speaking notes, but would somebody... So at the end of the speakers, would somebody like to move the recommendation? Commissioner Verity, can I have a seconder, please? Yeah, we can do that. Commissioner Jensen seconding the motion, the recommendation. We will now discuss the recommendation. Do any commissioners have comments? Commissioner Digby.
Yes. If I was on our speaker, Mr. Holbrook's side of the podium, I would have given that speech but louder. And I am not going to relitigate the issue of whether the city, in a time of significant cutbacks, we're cutting over 400 city staff from the rolls because we're... We refuse to make a reasonable increase in tax rates across the city. Even a modest increase would have solved that problem. Still, we have $2 million for this event. I think if we had $2 million for events, the higher priority would be dozens of cultural events across the city. of course, communities that could use the money, arts communities, other communities. Still, it would be inappropriate for me to go too hard down that line in my role as a park board commissioner. I think this park board has shown itself to be eminently reasonable with requests from the broader city to move on with specific projects that we're asked to focus on, and though we may quibble with it and quarrel with it, I feel that it's our duty to when the broader city and particularly city council and a majority want to carry on with this, I feel obliged to consent to it. We're having full cost recovery, the cost of our beach cleanup, the cost of our lifeguards and any other costs which for these essential services the park board provides are being covered. So, in view of all this, I will be supporting the motion tonight.
Commissioner Bostevansky.
Thank you, Commissioner. But if you were on the other side of that podium, I thought you would vote the way that you would feel your conscience and not be quiet about it. I'm not going to support this. I love fireworks. Fireworks are fun. I think they bring the city to life. But I think that this is going to be a hollowed out experience. I don't believe that it's going to have the same vibe as the celebration of light because it's not a competition. There's nothing at stake.
There's no theme to it. And even around English Bay where there's normally a lot of atmosphere, the fewer food trucks, no stands, like all these types of things that make it fun. And then there's this capacity of 100 guests. that I can't, we have no policy around who is going to allocate those. So we're going to spend $2 million, which somebody pointed out would be about 20 or 30 full-time staff or short funding at the park board, and we don't know who those 100 guests are, and we don't get a say in any transparent way of who attends. So you know what? That's not what the celebration of light is. That's not what that is. And so I think that all the electioneering that's going into this, I'm listening to our speaker. And even though I really like fireworks, I'm going to vote against this.
Thank you. Commissioner Jensen.
Thank you so much. I am going to be supporting A. I actually, again, for this city to be able to realize its financial responsibilities, it needs events like this. It needs to be able to drive businesses so that people are coming into our downtown core, spending money, and hopefully that money is translated into higher revenues, which can hopefully come back to the park board so that more services don't get cut next year. But I'm going to speak a little bit more about why I severed and my issue with B. And that is in this time of belt tightening, to have a private party for 100 VIPs that is being paid for by taxpayers, I think is irresponsible. And I think for the individuals that would like to attend this event and meet other people, they can do that shoulder to shoulder with every other Vancouverite. And I think for... When we look at spending dollars in this time, when we're looking at cutting services at our beaches, where we're raising fees at our parking lots, I think we have to be really mindful of how we spend those dollars and who those dollars are going towards. And at this point in time, I do not see the value in spending an additional amount of money to pay for a private party, for 100 VIPs that are going to be chosen by the mayor and by some other individuals that are looking to you know, try to improve their image. But again, I am not going to support B. I'm going to support A. And I hope that, counter to what Commissioner Basu-Vansky says, I hope this is an extremely successful event that mirrors the successes that Brand Live has done in the past. They're an amazing company that does great work. And I hope that the city comes out to celebrate. But I will be celebrating alongside all of them as well. Thank you.
Commissioner Verdi.
I think the comments around it being too expensive and then it's not big enough, it's not clear where this is going to land. Is it too expensive? Is it not expensive enough? It's not big enough? I think this is more against the mayor because I think the mayor really stepped up this time. The celebration of light was cancelled and he stepped up and gave us an event And I think it's cost effective. And I think those 100 seats are very important because it's a way for us to find someone to continue the event. And this event is special in the fact that Brand Live is going to be working with the city to try to continue what the Honda celebration was. And without this event, it would just die. So I'm in favor of bringing back a fireworks event that the city has enjoyed for years and years and years. And I don't want to make this political, but I've seen in the past in the media, anytime the mayor tries to do something, there's finger-pointing. I mean, he gave us $400 million for community center renewals, and then there's finger-pointing. He stepped up and he's giving us $2 million for a fireworks event and there's finger pointing. So, I mean, there is some electioneering going on the opposite way as well. So I just want to applaud the mayor and I look forward to having this event and for people celebrating. And this promotes Vancouver, especially at a time where FIFA is coming around. It shows, it promotes tourism. There's only positives. And the biggest thing is it's non-ticketed. So everybody can come and enjoy that event for free. That to me is huge. It brings community together and it brings, and it puts us on a stage where people visiting will see a great show. So I will be supporting both A and B.
Commissioner Hare-Online.
You just need to unmute yourself, Commissioner O'Hare. We can't hear you yet. Just take your mute off.
There you go. Thank you so much. I will be supporting this. I think it's really important to take the politics out of this celebration. I think the public has been looking forward and maybe disappointed that the other fireworks events were cancelled, so there's a new event to look forward to. English Bay fireworks are part of Vancouver's identity. This event brings residents, families, visitors, and local businesses together in one of our most ionic public spaces. With the traditional celebration of Lights Not Proceeding in 2026 due to funding pressures, this one-night event helps preserve an important summer tradition for our city. The previous event drew hundreds of thousands of people to English Bay, so there is clear public value in keeping this experience alive. I also appreciate that this approval is not open-ended. It remains subject to the satisfaction of the Park Board General Manager, which protects public safety. park operations, cleanup, access, and overall accountability. The liquor component is limited to 100 guests, so it is controlled and proportionate. This is about supporting a major civic event while ensuring strong oversight of our parks and public spaces. And for those reasons, I will be voting in support of this, both A and B. Thank you.
Great. I'll just make a comment in terms of I think our speaker said it better than I ever could to sort of capture the difficult position that we're in. You know, and I'll just take this time to sort of comment on that. I find it immensely frustrating that, you know, when we request a small 600,000 for, you know, to keep our beaches safe. We are turned down, but the mayor will step up in the case of a $2 million fireworks show. I think that that dichotomy is disappointing. I would have liked to see city council step up a little bit more in supporting... you know, things that I think are more critical to our city than a fireworks show. However, I'm not going to play tit-for-tat politics here and turn this event down. I think everyone and a lot of people in the city would like this to go forward, and I don't think I'm going to stand in the way of that. for actions that the City Council has made on other items. I don't think that's fair. But I do want to take this moment to just acknowledge that there is a real problem with the fact that we're spending $2 million on a fireworks show when we can't find the money to properly lifeguard our beaches. And we are cutting many jobs and frontline services at the Park Board right now. Point of order. Yes, Commissioner Herr.
Yeah, we should just stick to the motion that we're talking about.
Thank you, Commissioner Herr. I will stick to the motion. Yes, so I will be supporting this begrudgingly, and I hope that City Council appreciates our support of this and keeps that in mind as we move forward in budget discussions. So seeing no further comments, I'll call a vote by a show of hands. We're going to sever this vote, so we're going to be voting on A and B separately. So I'll be calling a vote on A first. So all in favor of A, please raise your hand. I see Commissioner Verdi, Commissioner Christensen, Commissioner Digby, Commissioner Jensen, Commissioner Howard, and Commissioner Hare. All opposed to A, Commissioner Bastiwanski. So A is carried. I will now call a vote on item B. All in favor of B? I see Commissioner Verdi, Commissioner Christensen, and Commissioner Digby, Commissioner Howard, and Commissioner Hare. All opposed? I see Commissioner Jensen and Commissioner Bastiwanski. B also carries. Thank you.
So that brings us to the end of that item. And as there's no further business, the meeting is now adjourned. Yep, so we'll be moving on to the board meeting. We're going to take a, can we have 10 minutes? Okay, five minutes. Okay, thank you. Five minutes.