Councillors debate whether city should offer such support to local groups

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By Aloma Jardine
Times & Transcript Staff

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Moncton city council agreed to extend a loan guarantee for the Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada for another five years, but not without an extended discussion on whether or not the city should be providing such support.

The city has provided the ballet company with a loan guarantee for a number of years, but the guarantee expired at the end of June.

The ballet theatre has not been able to obtain a similar guarantee from the province, so instead approached council to extend the loan guarantee for another five years on a depreciating basis.

The motion to approve the loan guarantee passed by a 6-3 vote with councillors Merrill Henderson, Paul Pellerin and Brian Hicks voting against. Coun. Steven Boyce was absent.

Henderson says he supports the ballet theatre and supports the $50,000 operating grant the city has agreed to supply the company with each year for a 10-year period, but doesn't not support a loan guarantee.

"I do not feel it is the mandate of the city to do that," he says. "It's nothing personal against the Atlantic Ballet Theatre."

Pellerin also feels the loan guarantee is outside the city's mandate and worries the city is opening the door to other similar demands, while Hicks says the city has been trying to get out of the ballet theatre's loan guarantee for years, adding that in the past city staff has advised council the city is not in the loan guarantee business.

He says the council of the day felt the operating grant was a way to get out of offering the loan guarantee and objects to the city agreeing to provide both.

Coun. Kathryn Barnes points out the loan guarantee does not require the city to spend any money.

"They do a great deal to promote our community and more importantly they contribute to the quality of life in our city," she says. "We're not being asked to give money, it is a loan guarantee and it is a depreciating loan guarantee. In five years we won't have it."

Before the vote Mayor George LeBlanc also added his two cents to the debate.

"I'm not always a fan of ballet, but it is clear the Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada is an iconic part of our culture," he says. "We have a very special city, small in size, but great in stature and this is one of the things that makes us great in stature. The Atlantic Ballet Theatre is a gem, a jewel, an icon, and we have to support things like this. It is vital to the quality of life and culture in the city."

LeBlanc says the city needs to protect such institutions rather than risk losing them if bad times befall them.