By Sheldon Spackman

Looking At Options

Westerner Park to potentially benefit from new provincial grant

Jan 29, 2021 | 2:03 PM

Officials at Red Deer’s Westerner Park are looking over the details of a new grant announced by the province on Thursday that aims to support Alberta’s performing arts, sports, and rodeo sectors.

The Stabilize Program is a $17 million investment by the government’s Culture, Multiculturalism and Status of Women ministry and is a one-time grant to help qualifying organizations continue to operate and reopen when it is safe to do so.

Mike Olesen, CEO at Westerner Park, admits their organization certainly has ties to all three sectors.

“Our industry has definitely been decimated in terms of its ability to do anything since March of last year,” he says. “Like any industry, we’re definitely hurting and it’s nice to see that they recognize the catalyst that our events would represent for the local economy. A lot of our economy in central Alberta benefits from when events are brought here, and so this gives us just a small boost to get those things going.”

Government officials say Alberta’s live experience organizations have been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic – losing a full season of programming and revenue, but still with ongoing overhead costs.

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Non-profits that host rodeos, professional and elite amateur sports organizations, and non-profits that own and/or operate dedicated presenting and performing arts venues can apply for operational funding through the Stabilize Program to offset financial losses.

Qualifying organizations will be eligible for a one-time grant of up to 25 per cent of eligible expenses based on 2018 and 2019 financials.

Organizations may use funds for ongoing operational costs, such as utilities, rent, insurance and programming, to support their reopening. The Stabilize Program allocates $12 million, and applications will be accepted until midnight Feb.18.

Also, the Stabilize Donation Matching stream will allocate $5 million to match private donations (from a minimum $250,000 to a maximum $1 million) dollar-for-dollar to eligible non-profit organizations that host rodeos and professional and elite amateur sports.

Non-profit organizations that own and/or operate dedicated presenting and performing arts venues or live experience venues are also eligible.

Olesen says Westerner Park will have to decide which part of the grant they will apply for.

“It’s a bit of a choice that the organization must make,” he explains. “Whether it has donors to provide matching funds or to utilize the expense reduction program. We’re definitely going to look at both and see which is most beneficial.”

Elsewhere, Olesen acknowledges the impact that WHL hockey may have for the organization once it resumes play starting Feb. 26.

“We’ve been working with the Rebels on return-to-play plans for a while now and I think it’s a good opportunity, as the team needs to play,” says Olesen. “It’s important for their player development and everything that they need to do to ensure their organization is viable moving forward. It’s probably the best way for it to be restarted in a safe way, so we’ll be working closely with the Rebels to make sure that that’s done and if we get the opportunity to have fans, we’ll be ready.”

According to Statistics Canada, every $1 million in output from live performance businesses generates about 17 direct and indirect jobs in the province.