www.ngtimes.ca
Vol. 3, No. 18
The Voice of North Grenville
May 6, 2015
Dandelion Festival faces questions
by David Shanahan
The North Grenville Times is Locally Owned and Operated
This year’s Dandelion Festival has come close to a major crisis over the past week, after it was revealed that the organising committee had accepted a donation of $5,000 from TransCanada Corporation, which is planning to run the EnergyEast pipeline under the Rideau River and through a small part of North Grenville. Individuals and groups in the community oppose accepting money from that source, as the pipeline is a divisive issue here. A number of local musicians have decided not to play the Festival because of the sponsorship deal, and Sustainable North Grenville have begun a fund raising drive to replace the TransCanada money. [See page 14 for their statements]. The Festival Board have assured SNG that, should they raise the $5,000 necessary, TransCanada’s money will be refunded to them and their sponsorship will cease. Shaun Vardon, Chair of the Board, has also laid down a deadline for SNG to meet. “Over the past couple of days, we have been talking with them and have come
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to an agreement. They will conduct a crowdfunding campaign in the hopes of replacing the funds provided by TC by May 8. That date was selected as it’s too late in our planning to start slashing our budget as most of it is now committed”, he said. The problem may be that the TransCanada cheque has been cashed and the funds are in the Festival account. Whether there is a legal obligation on the Board to continue the sponsorship arrangement would appear to be entirely up to the corporation. They have been told to wait until May 8, at which point they will be informed whether or not their money is still wanted. Shaun Vardon agrees: “ If [SNG] are successful, TC will no longer be a sponsor of the festival. If they cannot come up with the funds by May 8, TC will continue to be a sponsor of the festival”. However, the Festival Board will not support SNG’s campaign, wishing to “stay neutral” in a crisis of their own making. The Board’s statement is unambiguous, but somewhat puzzling. “The fundraising is SNG's project so we are not involved in that. We are trying to stay neutral in
all of this. As such we won’t be publicising their efforts on our website or FB page, it is up to them to use their networks to promote their cause. I hope you understand that as a community festival we are trying to stay out of the larger debate, it is not our place to judge the merits of the case. We are simply trying to accommodate people’s concerns”. The controversy has been covered by the Ottawa media, with both the Citizen and CBC Ottawa radio giving time to the story. The Citizen story quoted Shaun as implying that the sponsorship arrangement with TransCanada is not renegotiable: “We’ve already signed contracts, we’ve allocated the funds, we can’t just take a significant portion of our budget out”. The issue may well have to be decided soon. As of Tuesday, SNG had raised about $4,500 of the total asked for by the Festival, and there is every likelihood that they will realise their goal by Friday, May 8. The Board explained to the NG Times that the sponsorship money was essential if they were to maintain the same standard as last year’s Festival. With the growth of
the event, extra expenses were incurred in paying the event manager and hiring a security company to patrol the barriers where roads had been closed. Shaun noted that the increased security was a requirement of the Municipality of North Grenville, and outside the Board’s control. There was no increase in municipal funding to the Festival this year, and some of the federal Heritage Canada grant was lost, so the shortfall had to be made up somehow. This is where TransCanada came into the picture. It may be that, by the time you read this, the entire situation will have changed and TransCanada will be politely asked to take their money back. If not, it remains to be seen if other musicians or vendors, or even the general public, will also choose to boycott the Dandelion Festival this year. If all is settled to the satisfaction of SNG and other parties, the questions will remain about how this crisis was allowed to develop in the first place. [See Editorial]. The Board have achieved publicity from the Ottawa media for the Festival, but it may not be the kind they had hoped for.
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