Arne Petryshen
At last week's meeting, Cranbrook city council approved a new flag policy that sets out guidelines for how flags are approved to fly over city hall.
Mayor Lee Pratt explained the new policy at the May 11 meeting.
"We have lots of people wanting to fly their flag — different groups and organizations — and we just can't accommodate everybody," Pratt explained. "How do you say no to this one, or yes to that one? So we just wanted to put a policy in place that settles that."
The review of the city’s flag practice came after a recent request to fly a symbolic flag on one of the city flagpoles.
City staff noted that purpose of the policy is to ensure that all flags at city hall and other city owned buildings and parks are flown, displayed and half-masted in a consistent manner.
The new policy also means that the city will not raise a flag on behalf of an outside organization, which can include charitable or non-profit organization, community businesses or that another city, province, or nation.
The city’s Integrated Community Sustainability Plan identified cultural vibrancy as one of the four pillars that support the entire community. Flags are defined as symbols that identify people belonging to a group.
Prior to the approval of the policy the city did not have a policy to follow to ensure a consistent process when receiving requests to fly flags of other nations or organizations.