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South Okanagan Photos

“We don’t owe that much” says Boonstock

Boonstock beach22RCMP statement:

Costs now estimated at $250, 000 for Boonstock policing.

Superintendent  Kevin Hewco says the RCMP role changed significantly when gaps were identified in the private security at Boonstock requiring extra work.

Boonstock statement:

We are pleased that the RCMP has completed its report on policing operations during the Boonstock Music Festival held last month in Penticton, BC. We look forward to receiving a copy of the report, reviewing its findings, and combining them with our internal analyses, and other stakeholder reports that we have begun receiving. These “lessons learned” will allow us to produce an even better event… in the future.

In response to the RCMP press release from September 10th, 2014, we would like to assure the taxpayers of Penticton, and of the province of British Columbia, that Boonstock Productions Inc. is responsible to pay for reasonable RCMP enforcement costs for the 2014 event. We have a 9 year track record of paying our RCMP service agreements in full. On September 5th, 2014, the Ministry Of Justice, Police Services Division, delivered an invoice to us with a ‘Total Owing’ of $176,901.10 and those amounts are due within 30 days of the date of the invoice. We are in the process of requesting a resources breakdown of the RCMP services provided to Boonstock Productions Inc., including receipts and additional details of costs incurred.

We expect that Superintendent Kevin Hewco, who endorsed the Boonstock Music Festival’s Safety & Security Plan in writing prior to the event, will provide us with an itemized account of RCMP services rendered to the Boonstock event. This should include details of their “150 police files opened” and “38 prisoners held” over the week-end, and how those numbers compare to August Long Weekend in the past. The Boonstock Productions Inc. will also be comparing RCMP cost estimates with other festivals in BC.

However, a bigger issue for us at Boonstock is how much of todays RCMP press release is based on speculation, and we quote: “we can only speculate…, it is impossible to say with complete certainly… and I believe that the security concerns… would only have been compounded had the event been issued a liquor license”. We are not in the business of speculation, and we hope you, our fans, take these words for exactly what they are worth.

Once again, we thank the members of the RCMP and the many other stakeholders who participated in making the Boonstock Festival such a success in its first year.