By Juliet O’Neill
Managers of La Nouvelle Scène Gilles Desjardins theatre are working to ensure the show will go on despite withdrawal of a $2.9 million grant from the Ontario government.
The theatre “is not at risk of closing,” executive director Chantal Nadeau told The Echo in late January, two months after the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport rescinded the grant.
“Right now, we are developing a business plan so we can go back to the ministry with a new grant proposal,” she said.
The business plan will also include new fundraising activities to mobilize support from the public and philanthropists for the theatre, a pillar of Francophone arts and culture in Lowertown and beyond.
Nadeau said there is “no immediate impact on the operations, staff or programming” which features the Ottawa Winter Jazz Festival Feb. 7-9 and an array of other music and drama productions in coming months.
The grant was meant to help “pay the debt for reconstruction” of the theatre in 2015-16. The new building at 333 King Edward Ave. was financed with federal, provincial infrastructure funds, a municipal grant and $1 million from builder and philanthropist Gilles Desjardins, whose donation is described as the largest donation to a French Canadian cultural organization outside Quebec.
Documentation in dispute
The beautiful building replaced an aging 1930s-era theatre where La Nouvelle Scène was founded 20 years ago by four Francophone drama companies.
The new building houses two theatres, a studio and meeting rooms, a bistro and the four theatre companies: Théâtre du Trillium, Théâtre de la Vieille 17, Théâtre la Catapulte et Vox Théâtre.
Nadeau commented a day after the grant problem was discussed at a Jan. 21 evening meeting by La Nouvelle Scène board of directors.
Officials from the granting ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sports said publicly that the grant was rescinded on grounds it had been awarded by the now defeated Liberal government without proper documentation and was intended to buy votes on the eve of the June election.
Nadeau confirmed to The Echo what theatre officials said in response: “All the information and documentation that was required at the time was given to the government.”
When word of withdrawal of the grant spread, it was widely portrayed as part a betrayal of the Ontario Francophone community by the Ford government, which had announced plans to axe the position of independent French Language Services Commissioner and halt plans to establish a Franco-Ontarian university in the Greater Toronto Area.
“Cultural icon of our community”
After an outcry, Ford announced a French-language services commissioner would be set up in the independent office of the Ontario ombudsman – independent meaning it reports to the legislature, not the government. Caroline Mulroney, Attorney General and Minister of Francophone Affairs, said there are no funds to build the university, however.
Nathalie Des Rosiers, Liberal MPP for Ottawa-Vanier, vowed to champion La Nouvelle Scène. Des Rosiers, who had announced the grant in May, is one of only seven Liberals to survive the government’s electoral defeat.
“I am disappointed that the PC government did not honour previous commitments to la Nouvelle Scène but I remain committed to finding a solution,” she said in a written statement to The Echo.
“The contributions of La Nouvelle Scène are just too important to our cultural life to let the théatre down. I have reached out to Minister [Michael] Tibollo and we are meeting in the coming weeks. I will continue to advocate for this cultural icon in our community.”
The original funds for building the new theatre were allocated in 2011 through infrastructure budgets by the then federal Progressive Conservative government, when John Baird was an Ottawa MP; and the former Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty, when Ottawa-Vanier MLA Madeleine Meilleur was Minister of Francophone Affairs.