Despite impassioned pleas from Aberfoyle Farmers’ Market president Blair Moch, Puslinch council has not altered the township’s financial agreement with the market.
Prior to the discussion, councillor Matthew Bulmer declared a conflict of interest and stepped aside, as he provides services to the market.
Moch said she was last before council in December updating council on the past season’s challenges and successes. Her visit to council on April 19 was in regard to the market lease for the next four years.
“Farmers markets have a direct impact on rural economic development; by their very nature farmers markets create a direct link between the urban consumer and the rural producer,” Moch said.
“We are a local-only, farmers-first market run by the farmers market association, and a non-profit organization run by a volunteer board of directors.”
She added 2017 marks the seventh season of operation.
Gearing up for the upcoming season “we’ve seen a wide variety of new vendors applying … and the most amount of produce growers we’ve ever had … which will give our customers the variety they are looking for.”
There will continue to be prepared food vendors.
She noted last year, the Aberfoyle market was cited as one of the best small farmers markets in the country.
Moch added Gusto TV has approached the market to film for a new program – “which will bring even more exposure to our community, not just the market itself,” Moch said.
“This really wouldn’t have happened without all the hard work building the market over the past six years.”
Moch said the commitment to providing local products is starting to put the community on the map.
She said the board is seeking changes to the current version of the lease and hopes to address challenges over the next few weeks – before the market opens for the 2017 season.
She said the lease has major changes over the previous version “… and it may require more time to negotiate.”
One of the concerns is the financial impact the changes will have on the market and its vendors.
The new lease requires all vendors using cooking appliances (an open flame) to have a fire safety inspection annually at a cost of $100 per vendor.
“For a market of our type, both local and quite small, we feel (the cost) is quite high (based on the number of visitors),” Moch said.
Some of these vendors are here to support the market – not because it is a big money-maker, she said.
“Asking vendors to pay multiple fees will make it harder for us to attract the vendors we want, especially fresh prepared food vendors.”
She stated those particular vendors are a large reason why people come. Moch requested a single inspection for all – with a one-time $100 inspection fee.
She also requested the township waive the sign permit fee of $260, based on the market having obtained a permit from Wellington County – “and there was no expiry for this permit.”
“The major reason we came tonight was about the financial implications and specifically rental costs,” said Moch, who maintained other non-profit groups get a 75% discount on standard rental fees.
“We are being asked to pay 66%,” she said, adding that without the additional discount, the market will not be sustainable.
She said raising vendor fees could put the market out of line with fees charged at other markets.
“There’s a ton of new markets starting up every year, and the fight for vendors is getting more challenging,” she stated.
In 2016 the market had a 70% occupancy rate – on average 25 stalls rented each week. The average visitor count was around 700.
“Truthfully our net profit in 2016 was actually a loss,” Moch said.
“In order to try to be sustainable based on 2016 occupancy rates, and based on similar expenses, we would have to increase to 80% occupancy.”
In addition, the number of visitors would need to be bumped up by over 100 people per week.
“We definitely need to direct more money to our advertising and marketing efforts, because there are still those who don’t know the market exists,” Moch stated.
She added the Aberfoyle market doesn’t actually cost the township any money.
She said most Ontario farmers markets are operated by municipalities, including compensation for market staff.
“We are completely volunteer run – with one paid employee, a market manager – who is not paid at the rate a municipal employee might be,” said Moch.
She contended a market of this scope would cost a municipality about $50,000 per year to operate.
Thus she contended volunteers have saved the township $350,000 over the years by operating the venue.
Moch stated when the Optimist Recreation Centre was first funded, there were plans to operate a farmers market.
Without the changes being requested by the market association, Moch said the future could be an empty rink.
“There is the very real possibility the market could close in the next two to three years unless we can generate more traffic,” she said, adding that increased costs to vendors will affect the sustainability of the market.
“The future of our local market is definitely in danger,” Moch said.
Councillor Susan Fielding stated that in her work with Community Futures, every report references the cost to bring jobs to the community.
“As a market, you have all these volunteers and it is not costing any money to get this going,” said Fielding, who suggested there would be spin-offs from people attending the market.
“I agree that you should be treated as any other non-profit in our community. It is mostly community folks there,” she said.
Councillor Ken Roth asked how much it cost vendors to be at the market.
Moch said it depends on the size of the booth. A 10-by-10 foot booth would be about $23 per week, Moch said. In addition, there is a one time administration fee of $40.
While Lever was pleased to hear about the return of the cupcake vendor, he said some of the concerns raised by the group have been addressed.
In later discussion, council reviewed an amended agreement with the market board of directors.
Although some changes were ratified in the review, one of the major sticking points remained the 75% financial discount being requested by the market.
Lever stated that what council was voting on were the amendments made on other parts of the agreement, such as definitions of cooking appliances.
He stated the financial portion of the agreement was already voted on by council.
To alter that, the majority of council which had previously voted on the matter would have to agree to bring the matter up for reconsideration.
Councillor Susan Fielding said market representatives had approached council that night with a number of other items it hoped to address.
One of those was to have one group fire inspection for vendors rather than separate inspections for each vendor.
Lever said the municipality would need to speak with the fire department to determine if it was agreeable to do a single inspection with one fee.
He suspected if the inspections can be done in a single visit, the department might be agreeable.
“If it is three separate visits on three separate weeks, they might not,” said Lever.
Council voted 3-1 to include amendments to the market agreement as laid out in the staff report.
