Posted on 06/30/2006 10:15:47 AM PDT by Heartofsong83
Barring a miracle, there will be no Pride Week Festival in Ottawa this year, festival organizers say, after city council rejected please for emergency funding yesterday.
Somerset Councillor Diane Holmes asked councillors and the mayor to grant $20,000 to help get this year's event - the 20th anniversary edition - off the ground.
But the plea fell mostly on deaf ears, and the move was defeated on a vote of 15 to 3.
Ms. Holmes then tried to get councillors and the mayor to agree to give organizers $12,000 to pay for insurance so a small-scale festival could be held. This died on the same vote split.
Councillors agreed to the city providing $13, 810 for police and paramedic services for this year's festival, forgiving a $16,425 debt owed to the city for these services from last year, and allowing organizers to repay another $50,000 it owes the city over 10 years.
But the festival's chair, Darren Fisher, said these provisions won't be enough to save this year's event, which was scheduled to take place Aug. 18 to 27.
"If we don't get a white knight to come in and help us with cash flow by the end of this weekend, there's no way it's going to happen," he said. "Last year, a lot of us put it on our credit cards and there's no way we're doing that again this year."
Earlier this year, the Canadian Tulip Festival and the Franco-Ontarien Festival asked for, and were given, grants and debt forgiveness totalling $100,000 and $50,000 respectively.
At the time, several councillors expressed concerns about the annual parade of badly managed festivals looking for emergency funding and said it was the last time.
Yesterday, several councillors said they felt bad for Pride Festival organizers, and wished them well, but said they were just not going to be voting to give any festival, parade, or fair any more emergency money.
Cumberland Councillor Rob Jellet summed up the majority viewwhen he said his vote against emergency funding had nothing to do with who was asking for the money.
Instead, he said after voting to give the money to the two other festivals, he vowed he would never do so again. He added that the Pride Festival's financial track record spoke for itself.
The festival is $136,000 in debt and has left many of its bills unpaid. Most of this debt was incurred between 2002 and 2004, before the festival's current organizers took over.
spell check is not always your friend.
Good news ping!
Since council is not meeting now (Canada Day long weekend), this is a HUGE victory. 15-3 was a lot more lopsided than I expected as well! Looks like the suburban and rural councillors ganged up on them and most of the urban ones were absent or abstained, leaving Diane Holmes (who represents downtown Ottawa, which is the most liberal part of the city) pretty much on her own...
You know what would happen if you or I wrote a $5 hot check, but these folks are carrying a $136,000 debt and are whining for more.
But would they have rejected "pretty please?"
Yep, and their deficit is structural. They had a lot of trouble getting corporate sponsors.
It drew about 50,000 in its best year (2002?) but only 5,000 of those are loyalists that would come under any weather - when it rained two years ago, they got barely that much.
However, to watch this go up in smoke in Canada's capital city is an ENORMOUS embarrasment to the gay lobby. This means that they won't be able to put pressure on the federal government as much now or get as much of a reaction.
Pride Festival?
what are they proud of? the article doesn't say.
Being Canadian? Hockey? Bob & Doug McKenzie?
Gay pride...
Gay pride..
Then why they get mad when you call em what they are?
lol
>.>
It's like that everywhere...
I wonder how the DUmmies would react if this was posted there?
G pride = No Pride
The tax payers shouldn't be paying for these silly festivals, but that's my American ethnocentric conservative opinion.
I heard the pederast and beastophile parade will be funded this year. Several gay priders have apparently come out of the closet on these additonal expressions of love and expect to jump to this new venue. The continuum of human sexuality must be revealed to all to embrace. Signed, Homophobic
And I'm sure it would be FABULOUS!
I'm guessing back-bacon, eh? (pork product pun intended)
Toronto will NEVER cancel their queer festival unless a senior government stepped in. That is their #2 festival of the year, behind the nearly-as-absurd Caribana. Plus they get incredible amounts of government funding.
Gay = never happy.
Barring a miracle, there will be no Pride Week Festival in Ottawa this year, festival organizers say, after city council rejected pleas for emergency funding yesterday.
More like "barring widespread delusion or judicial activism"...
Gay Pride. What other group manages to celebrate two mortal sins at the same time?
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