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Written by Citizen staff
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Wednesday, 01 July 2009 |
A quarter-million dollars of taxpayer money has already been committed to a performing arts centre that should be relegated to the backburner of city hall priorities.
A state-of-the-art downtown arts complex is the right idea, but at the wrong time.
City council continues to pursue the arts centre concept as it endorsed this week the idea of going ahead with a facility as a public-private partnership.
The Performing Arts Centre Society has already received $150,000 from city hall to pay for a consultant's report ($120,000 was actually spent) and the society is receiving another $100,000 to complete the next phase - finalizing a site location, developing a detailed business plan and design concept.
A P3, or public-private partnership, is a desirable route to take if you can find a private partner, which in the current economy is a lot easier said than done.
Participation from senior levels of government should also be a stipulation if a centre is to go ahead, but again, there isn't much in the way of provincial or federal money being doled out for performance halls or other small-city public facilities these days.
Meanwhile, city council continues to chug along seemingly with the notion that it will build a performing arts centre regardless of the hurdles placed by the realities of the economy, cost or common sense.
We are big supporters of the concept of building a performing arts facility downtown, but the climate has to be right and right now it isn't.
Consider: the Prince George Symphony Orchestra, the crown jewel of the local arts and culture scene, is in an perpetual life-or-death struggle for survival.
The PGSO Society receives about one-third of its annual funding from local, provincial and federal governments ($60,000 from the city), but relies on ticket sales, advertising, private donors, sponsorships and fundraising for the bulk of its operating budget. It's an annual
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struggle to stay alive.
The PGSO, now nearing its 40th anniversary, would be an anchor tenant of a performing arts centre, but while city hall spends money chasing a dream, the PGSO continues to be in a financial bind. It would have made more sense, in the short term, to bolster funding to the PGSO with at least a chunk of the money that has gone into the preliminary fact-finding expedition for an arts centre.
In a perfect world, a sparkling new performing arts centre would soon be a vital cog in rejuvenating downtown with a thriving PGSO as a star attraction.
But things are far from perfect. The survival of the PGSO should be a priority to ensure it exists by the time the curtain goes up at a new performance hall.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 01 July 2009 )
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