Drumheller town councillors reaffirmed their support of the Pride community on Monday after a draft policy appeared to threaten the removal of the years-old Pride crosswalk.
“I’m sorry to all of you, everyone in the community. This had no intent to go where it went,” Mayor Heather Colberg said.
The proposed policy outlined what kind of flags would and would not be permitted to be flown by the town, and a schedule of when to fly flags in June with overlapping events of Pride month, National Indigenous Peoples Day and the annual flying of the Correctional Services Canada flag.
The draft policy also suggested all sidewalks in the town be only parallel white lines or alternating black and white lines, to match provincial guidance.
The town’s mayor said it would be “irresponsible” to not have a proper policy in place given the number of requests for hanging flags and banners the town receives in a year, and that a revised policy will be voted by council on March 18.
Councillors said all through the weekend, they heard feedback from their constituents and community organizations.
Coun. Lisa Hansen-Zacharuk said one older man in the community wrote to council supporting the Pride crosswalk.
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“For him, it wasn’t just the (crosswalk). It was more about being accepted and making sure kids are safe and that the community knows that it is safe here,” she recounted. “And I want to reiterate that yes, you are. You’re very important.”
Coun. Tom Zarinksi said he heard “an awful lot of good feedback, an awful lot of good suggestions from people.”
“And that to me just kind of shows me that this (public input) process works,” Zarinksi said.
Coun. Patrick Kolafa said he liked the crosswalk and the response from the community to the agenda item.
“As a council, one of the most valued assets we have is a motivated community who are willing to put their time and effort to make our community better. And I don’t want to thwart that,” Kolafa said. “And if this is a project that people feel is important and have the means, the drive and all of those things to put it together, I don’t want to stand in that way.”
Colberg echoed Kolafa’s comments that she does not want to obstruct an effort to keep the crosswalk if the Pride community wants to support it.
“Of all the naysayers, not a single one wrote in,” Hansen-Zacharuk noted.
CAO Darryl Drohomerski said his team was considering the possibility of moving the public display of support for the LGBTQ2 community from the crosswalk to a mural, something many of the councillors sounded in support of, to improve the longevity of the paint that otherwise requires repainting at some cost.
In 2020, the crosswalk was repainted near the town hall to free up the town’s historic downtown for film and television productions.
“We are economically driven by tourism and the film industry. And that sidewalk downtown got painted three different times because of film,” Colberg said.
Coun. Crystal Sereda also noted there’s a dinosaur – the town’s trademark – also painted in Pride colours in the southern Alberta town.
“Where else can we be able to ensure that we’re always inclusive and where can there be a space that could be better, that we all can unite?” Sereda said. “We can’t come together on a crosswalk in unity. We can be in a place in unity and I think there’s maybe more discussion about where can this be.”
The proposed policy came to the Drumheller committee meeting just weeks after a recent plebiscite in Westlock, Alta., effectively banned Pride flags and crosswalks on municipal property passed by 24 votes.
“We are not Westlock and we never have been,” Hansen-Zacharuk said
“We want to be the cleanest, friendliest, most sought after community in Alberta,” Colberg said. “This whole thing had no intention to make anybody feel that we’re not.”
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