Doug Ford’s government will be following through with a promise the premier made during his Progressive Conservatives’ recent re-election effort: to put $35 million in provincial funding toward rebuilding a theatre in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Tourism, Culture and Gaming Minister Stan Cho visited the town on Tuesday to announce that the funding would be provided over three years to support the Shaw Festival’s rebuild of the Royal George Theatre. It had been set to close after the upcoming festival season.
“For decades to come, this venue will now have an increased capacity of 20 per cent, improving accessibility and including amenities such as a rooftop garden, lobby, lounge areas and rehearsal spaces,” Cho said at the announcement of the plans for the rebuilt theatre.
In early February, at an election campaign stop of his own in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ford had said at a news conference that he “was just told we gave $35 million for a theatre.” A PC Party spokesperson clarified afterwards that they would, if re-elected, provide that funding for the rebuild of the Royal George.
At the PC Party campaign event, Tim Jennings, CEO of the Shaw Festival, told a Niagara-on-the-Lake Local reporter that Ford’s theatre-funding promise was “very new” to even him.
Ford made the promise about two months after he and Jennings each attended a $1,000-per-ticket PC Party fundraiser hosted at the Niagara-on-the-Lake home of Rainer Hummel, a real estate developer. Others who attended the Dec. 9 fundraiser included a pair of members of Ford’s cabinet, Cho and then-housing minister Paul Calandra, plus Niagara-on-the-Lake Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa and Erwin Wiens, a town councillor and its deputy mayor, according to reporting by Niagara Now.
Jennings, Zalepa and Wiens each told reporters, either soon afterward in December or later in February, that the Royal George’s rebuild was among the topics of conversation at the political fundraiser Hummel hosted.
Asked about it on the campaign trail, Ford said, “I don’t ever discuss business at homes of whoever.”
“That’s private business and I’m very transparent,” the premier said at the Feb. 8 news conference. “What I discuss is what I discuss at the press conferences. But thank you for that question there.”
On Tuesday, after Cho’s announcement in the town, The Trillium emailed his and Ford’s spokespeople asking again whether the theatre had been discussed at the Dec. 9 PC Party fundraiser but did not receive a response before this story’s publication.
—With files from Mike Balsom of Niagara-on-the-Lake Local
