By Lara Fominoff @LaraFominoff on Twitter

Lethbridge City Council narrowly approves $15K trip to Ireland for local Nikka Yuko and tourism delegates

Jun 26, 2018 | 11:01 AM

LETHBRIDGE – In a 4-3 decision, Lethbridge City Council has approved $15,000 in funding after an ad hoc request was made from Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden and the Lethbridge Destination Management Organization, to go to Ireland for one week.
 
Brad Hembroff, President of Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden Society and William Slenders, Executive Director of LDMO say an invitation from the Lafcadio Hearn Japanese Garden was received a few weeks ago, unexpectedly.
 
“This particular opportunity came barely a month ago, completely out of the blue by way of an invitation from Ireland to come to this garden,” says Hembroff. “It’s an opportunity to bring what we have, which is a world class garden to Ireland. The Canadian Ambassador to Ireland will be there.”
 
Both Hembroff and Slenders believe it’s a way to link the UK to Lethbridge through tourists’ affection for visiting garden cities.
 
“It will really allow us to elevate Lethbridge as a destination in a(n) international market,” adds Slenders. “The European garden traveller is the most intensive garden traveller inside of the world, so it makes for a great position to be able to get Lethbridge out, and then the European traveller is also very interested in our indigenous experiences as well. So this makes for a great opportunity to be able to highlight Lethbridge as a destination of choice in Alberta.”
 
But several members of City Council, including Jeff Carlson and Mayor Chris Spearman weren’t sold on the cost of sending three people for an entire week to the UK. In fact, Mayor Chris Spearman said council was somewhat “blindsided” by the request for funding.
 
“How can you tell us that this $15,000 will be well spent, recognizing that we don’t give other groups travel funds? Other community groups that do some level of…. who raise the profile of this city of Lethbridge. What makes this different…How can you gauge that we’re going to get tons of Irish and European tourists coming to us as a result of this trip?”
 
Councillor Jeff Carlson, while supporting the Japanese garden friendship initiatives that would be undertaken, such as exchanging a “friendship scroll,” also was cautious about the need for three people to actually travel to Ireland. He made a motion to divide the resolutions presented to council into the financial clause, and the other friendship clauses, which passed unanimously.
 
“I think everything that was said can be accomplished without the actual physical travel coming out of council’s budget. I do know that this is an exciting event…however I’m very concerned about setting precedent,” cautioned Carlson. “We…used to have a budget line for this, and it became very popular, we’ve got lots of groups in our community that would like to travel and like to make requests of council. I remember last time we approved an ad hoc request of this nature, it opened the flood gates and we got more and more and more requests that unforuntately we had to turn down because we know popular it is. It becomes unsustainable.”
 
Hembroff acknowledged that other groups could come forward with travel expense requests as well, however their request was unique.
 
“I think that you can always sell one-time opportunities without opening the flood gates if you think that there’s going to be a benefit to the city in a large way.”
 
And Slenders says if they had been given a bit of extra time, they would have found other sources or means of raising the money for their expenses.
 
“I think that the average Lethbridgian will see that we’re really trying to take one of the best attractions inside of Lethbridge and really try to ramp Lethbridge up into the international presence. I think that they are going to see that this is going to be a good opportunity to take a well-known asset in the community and drive even more people to that asset.”
 
The week-long tour for two members of Nikka Yuko Japenese Garden, and one member of the LDMO will include working with other tourism agencies in Europe, other garden tours and networking opportunities.
 
The money will likely come from the 2018 Council Contingency Fund, which has about $20,578 in it. There are also, according to administration, a few other funds where a carry- over amount can also be used. Hembroff says a report of the trip will be presented to the city as well.