ByWard Market reverses mandatory insurance for buskers
Ottawa Markets backtracked same day CBC Ottawa reported on outcry from local buskers
The independent municipal corporation that runs Ottawa's ByWard Market has reversed its decision to force buskers to pay hundreds of dollars for liability insurance, just two days after instituting the new requirement — and the same day CBC Ottawa published a story about the outcry over the rule.
CBC Ottawa reported Tuesday the concerns of several buskers who said the hefty cost of the new insurance would deter many people from performing in the area, especially those who only perform occasionally.
"I think it's acceptable for [bigger] shows, but for the guy playing guitar on the street, I don't really know why they would need insurance," Joey Albert, a local juggler and acrobat, said.
"It definitely deters some buskers, which is unfortunate because you want variety in the Market."
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson also expressed frustration with the change Tuesday, saying he asked his staff to talk to the market's managers to encourage them to rethink the decision.
"I was not happy when I saw they were putting more red tape around the creativity of street musicians and buskers, particularly when we just adopted a music strategy," Watson said.
'We're listening #OttNews!'
Jeff Darwin, executive director of Ottawa Markets, told CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning Tuesday the insurance would amount to about $200 per performer, but buskers told CBC they expected the true cost to climb to as much as $500.
The insurance requirement went into effect April 1.
In response to a tweet by Ottawa Morning, the Twitter account for Ottawa Markets, which manages the ByWard and Parkdale markets, wrote Tuesday: "We're listening #OttNews! #Buskers will NOT require liability insurance to operate commercially in the #ByWardMarket."
We're listening <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MyOttawa?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MyOttawa</a> ! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Buskers?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Buskers</a> will NOT require liability insurance to operate commercially in the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ByWardMarket?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ByWardMarket</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PlayOn?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PlayOn</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/JimWatsonOttawa?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JimWatsonOttawa</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MathieuFleury?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MathieuFleury</a>
—@OttawaMarkets"We're new and we're listening and we're learning at the same time," Darwin said. "So based on the feedback from buskers themselves, we're going to certainly defer, if not cancel that outright, forever, the requirement for buskers in the Ottawa market to have commercial liability insurance."
— With files from Idil Mussa