Councillor’s motion to end Saskatoon’s capital projects public art funding stream defeated

A motion by a Saskatoon city councillor to end the city’s capital projects public art funding stream was defeated by a 8-3 vote on Wednesday.

During the meeting of the city’s governance and priorities committee, Ward 5 Councillor Randy Donauer proposed ending the stream, which requires capital projects where the city commits $5 million or more to “integrate a public art or artistic design element into their project, the cost of which is to be up to one (1) percent of the total capital projects budget, to a maximum of $500,000.”

Read more:

• Saskatoon councillor calls for change to public art policy after $300,000 installation
• ‘Waste of money’: Taxpayers Federation slams Saskatoon’s $300k plastic rock art
• Fatal Saskatoon crash not an accident, police say

Donauer’s motion comes after public outcry over a new public art installation that saw three plastic rocks installed at Diefenbaker Park, the Forestry Farm and the city’s landfill, with a price tag of $300,000.

The installation, dubbed Modern Erratics by its creators, Calgary-based artist duo Sans façon, has led to significant criticism online.

Tristan Surtees, one of the artists who created the sculptures, spoke at city hall on Wednesday, defending the investment in the project. He said it was created as economically as possible.

“There is a cost, yes,” Surtees said. “What’s been made is unique. It’s not off the shelf. It takes craftspeople and expertise to make a work that can be enjoyed for many years.”

Surtees also said that 95 per cent of the materials for the art installation were from Saskatchewan.

Donauer said the policy that allowed the project to go forward needs to change.

“This was proposed in 2014, and I’m not going to say I’m a fortune teller, but I foresaw some problems with setting large amounts of money aside for something like this,” Donauer said.

“What the policy said when it came in 2014, and we follow it today, is that for any large capital purchase that we do in Saskatoon, if we’re putting up a building or a bridge, we’re going to set aside 1 per cent of that capital budget for art up to a maximum of $500,000 per project, but that’s half a million dollars per project, and things are more expensive now.”

Donauer said he has attempted to end the funding stream twice, once in 2014 and again in 2016. Both votes ended in failure.

“My motion is that we recommend to council that this one policy be canceled, not the entire public art policy and not all of our art funding, but this one,” Donauer explained. “I find this one problematic. Number one, because it’s going to be regularly that we’re committing this. Number two, it’s a very large amount of money that I think is out of sync with what should be our spending priorities.”

Donauer, along with Councillor’s Troy Davies and Bev Dubois voted for the motion. Dubois said the city already funds several arts programs through the mill rate, while money for this public art stream comes from capital funding.

“This is coming out of core services, your sidewalks, your streets,” she said. “I don’t think we communicate that very well to the residents.”

Mayor Cynthia Block, along with councillors Scott Ford, Holly Kelleher, Kathryn MacDonald, Robert Pearce, Jasmin Parker, Sinos Timon and Zach Jefferies, voted against the motion.

Jeffries explained the city could improve the policy, rather than scrapping it altogether.

“I think we can look into ways of making this better, as well as respecting tax dollars along the way,” he said.

–with files from 650 CKOM’s Mia Holowaychuk