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MINTO – The Town of Minto is giving the thumbs up to installing Pride banners to represent a more permanent display of support for the local 2SLGTBQIA+ community and add a barrier to the vandalism seen on past Pride decorations in town.
A report going forward at Minto’s Tuesday night council meeting recommends approving an initiative to install four Pride banners each in Harriston, Palmerston and Clifford from the beginning of May until the end of September.
The Minto Pride committee had asked council earlier in the summer to assist with an investment in Pride banners to be installed on light fixtures to avoid vandalism to Pride decorations that had been noted in recent years.
Similar Pride banners were installed in Fergus and Elora but these were subject to vandalism over the summer.
Minto staff appear to be on board with this idea. The report said having more permanent banners on light poles would be “a more permanent representation of Pride, have a longer life span, be more environmentally sustainable, be more cost effective and would reduce the ease of vandalism.”
It also noted the town supports the Royal Canadian Legion each year by providing time and labour to install and remove Remembrance Day banners with the two legions in town paying for production costs of the banners.
To ensure equity, the recommendation would be for council to approve the initiative but leaves production costs the responsibility of Minto Pride while providing the time and labour of installation and removal.
However, the recommendation supports assisting the Pride committee in fundraising efforts through social media, website content and processing any donations received at the municipal office.
The report estimated the cost of each banner to be $115 plus HST for a total of $1,559.40 for 12 of them.
Minto council will consider this at its meeting Tuesday at 7 p.m.
