Photo: Luc Rempel

Salmon Arm residents will celebrate Canada Day with a brand new festival thanks to organization efforts from the Shuswap Recreation Society.

Last year, Salmon Arm’s Mayor and council received a letter decrying the lack of Canada Day festivities in the city. This year, council approved a $10,000 budget for a Canada Day Festival.

At the March 24 Salmon Arm city council meeting, Darin Gerow, general manager of the Shuswap Recreation Society, presented a proposal for a Canada Day Festival Celebration.

"We recognized the absence of a Canada Day festival celebration and we were eager to explore opportunities to reunite the community for this occasion,” Gerow said. “Our goal would be to host an event at the Rogers Rink and SASCU Recreation Center.”

He said last year, the recreation society hosted a Canada Day ball hockey tournament and despite short notice and very little in the way of advertisement, the tournament was a rousing success.

For this year’s event, the society plans to host another indoor ball hockey tournament which would include an artisan market, family-friendly fun zone, food trucks, live music and a show and shine.

“Staff have put together a preliminary budget and it would cost between $7,000 to $10,000,” Gerow said. “The 2025 budget includes an amount of $14,000 for Canada Day celebrations, and at this time we're looking to have council support and authorize a contribution of up to $10,000 to the Shuswap Recreation Society to host a Canada Day Festival.”

Councillors in attendance were supportive of the plans.

“We have heard lots at this table that the city should be doing more for Canada Day, and we've always said in a lot of communities it's an outside group, but I'm glad you're taking it on,” said Coun. Kevin Flynn. “I very much support this.”

Mayor Alan Harrison also spoke up in support of the event.

“Thank you to Shuswap Recreation,” he said. “I agree, there's no better time to celebrate Canada than this year.”

Council voted unanimously in support of contributing up to $10,000 from its Canada Day celebrations reserve fund to the Shuswap Recreation Society in order to help pay for a Canada Day Festival.

More details about the festival are expected to become available closer to the date.