The board of the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association has given the green light for the proposed 2025 budget.
The board met on Thursday afternoon and approved the proposed budget total of $921,100 - the same as the approved 2024 budget.
Some allocated funding has decreased such as the street and alley cleaning program and implementation of security cameras which the city will now cover a portion of as part of the Strengthen the Core Downtown Windsor Revitalization project.
The Canada Day celebrations has also seen a cut as the DWBIA receives more grant and sponsorship funding for that particular event.
Some items that saw proposed increases in the budget include $37,000 to purchase a Video Wall to be able to show things such as sports games, and big televised events - like the 2023-24 NHL Stanley Cup Finals which was televised in June.
The other large item increase was a nearly $70,000 increase for events to help them grow and bring more people downtown.
Chris MacLeod, Chair of the DWBIA, says there will be a lot of horsepower behind events for downtown.
"More behind lighting and improving the decorative lighting downtown, and continuing to do the things that work really well, continuing to do the Farmers Market, continuing to the do the Ouellette Car Cruise, and supporting WIFF. And then augmenting it with more block parties, more opportunities for people to come downtown and have a great experience."
He says they had to pull back on some events due to not having the money to rent a video wall.
"When we doing the Stanley Cup Finals we could if we had our own video wall, and we weren't looking at that expense every time we used it, we could've done 10 games in the playoffs versus doing three. So, this year we said 'well, why don't we allocate some resources, have our own equipment, and then we can do more events'."
MacLeod says there are ideas to start a calendar to list all DWBIA events.
"So that at the beginning of the summer people can see 'okay, well, going on in June, July, August there are all of these events', and I think as we get people used to that idea of 'hey, there's something going on downtown every single weekend', that'll really improve our traffic and our visibility and our experiences for people coming downtown."
The proposed budget for 2025 will still need Windsor city council approval.
Funding has been set aside to continue events such as the Downtown Windsor Farmers' Market, the Ouellette Car Cruise, the Santa Claus Parade.
MacLeod says he would love to be able to continue events such as the Windsor Zombie Walk and parade, and to continue communication with Detroit to expand the Detroit Free Press Marathon in Windsor.
