City gives Explore Edmonton additional one-time $6M funding

Fair-goers on the midway at Edmonton's K-Days summer exhibition in an undated photo (CTV News Edmonton)

The City of Edmonton's tourism body is getting a $6-million boost to its budget.

Explore Edmonton has been in charge of K-Days, the city's annual summer exhibition, and Farmfair International, a major agriculture and cattle show held at the Edmonton Expo Centre, since 2022 but has not had its budget increased permanently.

Explore Edmonton works to promote the city's attractions and operates both the Expo Centre and the Edmonton Convention Centre, attracting conferences and conventions that contribute to the local economy.

"I believe their base level funding needs to grow because if we don’t do that, we will not be able to make sustained efforts to attract more tourism and conventions to our city," Amarjeet Sohi told media on Monday.

"It’s part of the economic growth emphasis of this council."

The $6 million increase is coming from the city's main reserve fund.

Explore Edmonton's chief executive officer had told councillors the $6-million one-time funding would allow the organization to "tread water" this year, otherwise it would've had to cancel some programs and remove itself from certain event bids and sales arrangements.