Local arts festivals among 14 groups tagged for $3 million in federal Tourism Relief Fund
Vancouver International Film Festival has put its $500,000 toward rehiring workers and other post-pandemic rebuilding
Vancouver International Film Festival faced challenges staffing back up after shutdowns.
THE VANCOUVER International Film Festival and the Vancouver Fringe Festival are among the 14 events and organizations that have received part of $3 million in federal funding aimed at boosting tourist-attracting projects.
Harjit Sajjan, Minister of International Development and the minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development agency of Canada (PacifiCan), made the official announcement of the Tourism Relief Fund at VIFF Centre this morning. He said the investment was expected to create 430 new jobs and attract about half a million new visitors to the city.
Recipients include the Arts Club Theatre Company, which is putting $100,000 toward renovating and relaunching the Granville Island stage’s lobby and bar, plus the Punjabi Market ($100,000), which aims to further develop its identity as a tourist destination; Latincouver ($355,000), which hosts Latin American Heritage Month events around music, dance, and literature, as well as Carnaval del Sol; and the Coastal Jazz and Blues Society ($250,000), which organizes the Vancouver International Jazz Festival. The Vancouver Fringe Theatre Society also received $100,000.
“This fund is helping tourism operators create new and enhanced methods to attract visitors from around the world and from here in BC,” Sajjan said at the press conference this morning. “Prior to the pandemic over 11 million overnight visitors came to Vancouver each year, spending well over $4 billion while they were here and their presence helped emply 70,000 people locally. And COVID had a devastating impact on that.”
Some of the funding has already been allotted and spent; other projects have yet to get under way.
VIFF executive director Kyle Fostner told Stir the $500,000 his organization received—paired with other recovery funding from provincial and federal sources—was integral to rebuilding the film festival for its first, full live edition last fall.
“For VIFF, this investment is extremely important and will allow this festival to accelerate out of the pandemic,” he said. “What it means is we’re not limping toward this year, which we would have been doing if we hadn’t received it. We would be making cuts, we would be in austerity thinking—which is not what’s needed right now.”
Fostner explained the investment has been “all about jobs”. VIFF, he said, suffered the loss of an entire generation of employees who went into other fields during the pandemic. “We had to invest in hiring a new set of workers,” he said, “so we had to retrain a whole staff.”
On top of that, Fostner said the film fest has faced rising costs for overhead and technical equipment—a challenge similar to those faced by outdoor summer fests, like the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, which almost shut down operations this year.
The funding, Fostner said, has put VIFF back on surer footing. “We’re confident that in 2023 there will be a raucous celebration of cinema,” he says of the fall event.
Other investment funding of $163,807 has gone toward the Little Mountain Gallery Community Arts Performance Association to establish a new comedy venue in Gastown. In December 2021, after 20 years, its former venue was demolished for low-rise condos. The group is currently waiting for construction to start at its new location at 110 Water Street, but is hosting some comedy nights in the venue already.
The biggest chunk of the $3 million, $836,000, went to Destination BC Corp. to develop tourism strategies. Other recipients include FlyOver Canada, Gastown Business Improvement Society, Go2 Productions Inc., the Tourism Industry Association of B.C., and Vancouver Native Housing Society to renovate the hotel and gallery Skwachàys Lodge.
So far, the Tourism Relief Fund is one-time, joining other recovery grants aimed at helping arts and cultural groups rebuild after shutdowns. In February, the provincial government announced it would do a one-time repeat of the $30 million B.C. Fairs, Festivals and Events fund, for events between April 2023 and December 2024.
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