Ford government withdraws La Nouvelle Scène's $2.9-million grant
Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: November 21, 2018
Ottawa-Vanier MPP Nathalie Des Rosiers, who championed a $2.9-million provincial grant to keep a debt-strapped French-language theatre in Lowertown alive, said Wednesday that she will fight to offset the critical damage of that grant suddenly being withdrawn by the Ford government.
Des Rosiers said she learned on Wednesday through media reports that the grant, which she announced in May, had been rescinded. Now, the possibility of La Nouvelle Scène Gilles Desjardins closing is “certainly a risk that is out there,” Des Rosiers said in an interview.
The withdrawal of the grant comes on the heels of provincial cuts announced last week that abolish a proposed Franco-Ontarian university project as well as the position of Ontario’s French-language commissioner.
In that context, the loss of the grant for La Nouvelle Scène “is again another mistake,” Des Rosiers told reporters in Toronto on Wednesday. “The government doesn’t understand the French reality in Ontario.”
Awarded this spring by the outgoing Liberal government, the grant was to have assisted La Nouvelle Scène with its programming and with reducing its $3 million debt incurred during its recent reconstruction.
Prior to receiving the grant, the theatre’s debt “was so large that they were unable to meet their obligations in a way that was threatening their very existence,” Des Rosiers said in an interview. She said “it made no sense” to allow La Nouvelle Scène to close, given previous provincial investments.
Des Rosiers said she would reach out to Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport Michael Tibollo to see what could be done to mitigate the new blow to La Nouvelle Scène.
La Nouvelle Scène is very open to working with any government to continue its mission, Des Rosiers said. The theatre could also boost its own fund-raising efforts to address its financial situation, she said.
The 23,000-square-foot facility on King Edward Avenue serves four francophone drama companies and is home to two theatres seating 180 and 80 people respectively.
Also on Wednesday, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson wrote Caroline Mulroney, Ontario’s attorney general and minister responsible for Francophone affairs, to protest the abolition of the French-language commissioner’s position.
“The abolition is a big disappointment for us and a step back for Franco-Ontarians,” Watson wrote in French, noting that more than 145,000 Ottawa residents — or more than 15 per cent of the the city’s population — are francophones.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...-million-grant
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