Liberal MPP says festivals need help with rising security costs

Logistics around large festivals in Ontario are becoming more complicated and expensive, mostly due to the need for added security. And one MPP says that organizers are not getting enough support. So we've seen this happen incrementally year over year. You know, there ends up being more threats and more incidents, and that requires more safety at the end of the day. And we want to make sure people are safe. I think that's really important. But now I'm asking for the province to step up a bit and help our festivals and events with some one-time funding for security infrastructure that can then be shared among different events festivals municipalities within a certain region so the barriers and and the fencing and things that you know events and festivals would use uh whether you know you have a beer tent for example so you're required to fence off that area you know here at Oktoberfest right here in Kitchener uh as well right that main kind of festival area it's fenced off but if you look along the entire route there's also vehicle mitigation so that you know a vehicle can't come on to the festival grounds so I'm talking about from a physical standpoint and the sharing of that infrastructure but then secondly the province funds festivals and events across the province it's a portion of that funding so to come up with the security and safety stream in order to help these festivals events that provide you know entertainment and joy and a lot of times free for families and for people that are that are struggling with social isolation to be able to continue to attend attend these festivals and events.