Red Deerians reacted from “horror” to equanimity to Red Deer city council’s decision to make the popular public market find a new location.
Market vendors, past and present, were among the most troubled by the decision that council made on Tuesday, giving the market 87 days notice it has to move.
“I’m horrified,” said vendor and local store owner Catherine Robb.
She feels the Saturday morning market that operates from Victoria Day to Thanksgiving is Red Deer’s biggest summer tourism attraction and most important incubator for local small businesses.
But former city councillor and business owner Paul Harris expressed a different perspective. He feels the market operator had a couple years to work out access issues with the Red Deer Curling Club, or find another location.
“You can’t sacrifice one service for another,” said Harris, referring to the Red Deer Curling Club’s complaint that having a market on its doorstep was hindering plans to market the Pidherney Centre an all-season events site.
Robb believes the market should have had at least a year’s notice “to figure it out… To say ‘move’ in three months was mind-blowing.”
She knows the market attracts many visitors to Red Deer, who then go out for lunch or shop elsewhere. She estimates about 40 per cent of the “non-regulars” she speaks to the market are from out-of-town.
Robb also knows the market is a great testing ground for small businesses. She started out selling goods as a market vendor, before gaining enough customers and self-confidence to open her own bricks and mortar Housewarmings store on Ross Street.
“And I know so many other businesses that started at the market,” she said.
Among them was Lorna Watkinson-Zimmer, former owner of Comforts the Sole shoe store, as well as a former city councillor.
MORE:
- City council says market must move
- Keep the market downtown: DBA
On Wednesday, Watkinson-Zimmer praised Coun. Bruce Buruma for reminding council during its deliberations on the parking lot lease there were 100 affected businesses at the market.
Watkinson-Zimmer, who first tried out selling shoes through a market stall, feels “disappointed and very sad” the public market is now homeless.
“It’s a real blow to the downtown,” she added.
According to Robb, “Councils always say they want to improve the downtown and then they make decisions like this, that hurt the downtown. Once these decisions are made, there is no coming back from them.”
Although market operator Patrick Moffat vowed he will find a new central spot and the market will carry on, many of his supporters can’t think of another location as good as the market’s usual spot, in the city-owned parking lot in front of the Pidherney Centre, home of the Red Deer Curling Club.
Like many non-profits, the club has financially suffered from a loss of government grants and successfully petitioned the city to make the market move so it could turn the centre in a revenue-making an all-season event centre.
Since the market can move while the curling club can’t, councillors decided in a 5-4 vote on Tuesday to not renew the market’s lease in that city-owned parking lot.
Mayor Ken Johnston said it came down to providing “equity” of access on public lands, and also the city maintaining the right to grow public use of the Servus Arena, which also borders onto the parking lot used by the market.
Robb wishes a compromise could have been worked out.
Council heard on Tuesday there was not one face-to-face meeting between the city, the curling club and market operator to discuss the issue since the access complaint arose in 2020, although the city had separate meetings with proponents on both sides of the issue.
Robb knows how difficult it is to move even a regular business, never mind one as large and complex as the 100-plus stall market that requires enough space for vendors, space for customer parking and public washrooms.
Critics of council’s decision fear the market will lose vendors and customers until it possibly dies out.
Watkinson-Zimmer believes the uncertainty over location “will not be helpful” in retaining vendors. She added the members of city administration, who recommended to council that the parking lot lease not be renewed, do not understand Red Deer’s history or roots “when they cannot see the value of something like the market.”
Former market vendor Dave Flewwelling noted the market’s size was drastically reduced after a temporary move to the Memorial Centre and the COVID pandemic. He feels moving the market again will be perilous.
But Harris feels there are many other potential spots. He suggested the city could even shut down part of Ross Street and Little Gaetz on Saturday mornings, as happens for Centrefest, so the market could move there.
“It would be brilliant. It’s already busy down here on Saturdays, but imagine what could be done when the market is here,” Harris added.
Finding street parking for so many large fruit and vegetable trailers will be difficult to impossible, predicted Robb, who noted it’s already a juggling act for the Wednesday Downtown Farmer’s Market, which is much smaller.
After Tuesday’s council decision, Mayor Johnston expressed his continuing support for the market, saying city staff are willing to help it find another location and to market it.
lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter