Ottawa spent $6 million to celebrate Canada Day in 2013

The Canadian government allocated approximately $6 million for Canada Day celebrations across the country in the 2013 fiscal year, according to the Department of Canadian Heritage.

The government handed responsibility for Canada Day and several other national celebrations over to Canadian Heritage in 2013, in order to ensure "a broad, national perspective is brought to these celebrations," according to the 2013 budget.

The funding comes as part of the Celebrate Canada program, which includes National Aboriginal Day, Saint Jean-Baptiste Day and Canadian Multiculturalism Day.

"Celebrate Canada funds approximately 1,700 projects per year," said Pierre Manoni, a spokesperson for the department, via email.

"The objectives are to enable Canadians to appreciate Canada's cultural, ethnic, linguistic and geographic diversity and to create opportunities for Canadians to participate in celebrations that create a sense of pride and belonging to Canada," Manoni said.

Last year’s budget also allocated more funds for the 2017 celebration of Canada's 150th birthday, including $5 million for the construction of a permanent visitor centre at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France, according to the Canadian Economic Action Plan website.

Only five MPs in this CBC-Carleton University study disclosed Canada Day funding in 2013.

'Small amount to take pride in our history'

In Ontario, for the few MP websites that actually disclosed the information, $124,300 was spent on Canada Day celebrations in 2013, across 10 cities and towns.

The program granted the city of Barrie, town of Oakville, and city of Kawartha Lakes the biggest Ontario announced numbers: $43,500, $36,000 and $29,500 respectively for their July 1 festivities, according to the websites of the MPs for those ridings.

"I think it's a small amount to take pride in our history — to take pride in our country," said Patrick Brown, Conservative MP for Barrie.

"Canada does lots of things wonderfully but I think at times we are too shy in our patriotism," Brown said. "And if there's ever a day to be unabashedly proud of our country, it's on Canada day."

The cities and townships use the funds for fireworks, entertainment and children’s activities on Canada Day, according to accompanying press releases.

"The city applies for funding to increase capacity and to support the event," said Scott LaMantia, senior communications adviser for the city of Barrie.

"The funding was used for fireworks and entertainment for an attendance of over 50,000," he said via email. "Our 2013 festivities involved a kids fun zone (inflatables, games, and free face painting), live entertainment, an O Canada sing-a-long and fireworks over Kempenfelt Bay."

Organizations seeking funding for Celebrate Canada events must apply on the Canadian Heritage department's Celebrate Canada website, and are subject to several terms and conditions if they are granted funding, such as making sure the events are open to the public and free of charge, according to the application guidelines.  The department conducts a number of site visits yearly, said Maroni.

Canadian Heritage is more likely to release funds if the money will supplement other sources, such as some funding from the city or town, according to the guidelines.

"Of course, the grant contributes towards what the municipality provides in the way of funding and we do receive in-kind support from local media," LaMantia said. "However, no other funding sources such as grants were used."

Callum Micucci is a 4th-year journalism student at Carleton University in Ottawa. This story is part of a project by the Carleton School of Journalism on federal spending announcements in 2013.