Castlegar city council has decided/to leave a poet’s request unrequited.
City staff presented a report to council this week following a request last year from Castlegar-raised poet Tristan Wheeler to consider naming a poet laureate.
They found that at least four municipalities in BC have poet laureates, namely Vancouver, Victoria, New Westminster, and Nanaimo. They serve as literary ambassadors for their communities, produce a certain number of original works during their appointed terms, and recite poems at city events.
Staff found they are normally appointed for two to four year terms at an average annual pay of $2,500 to $7,500, although some municipalities pay additional fees for each piece of work or provide project funding to support the laureate’s activities.
Wheeler had offered to do it for free.
However, staff noted that having a poet laureate is not part of council’s current strategic plan.
“We’ve set our budget for this year and we didn’t budget anything for this,” councillor Dan Rye said. “There probably would be a cost involved, so I think for now we should just receive the report and move on.”
The rest of council agreed.