The Feds gave $2 million of taxpayers' dollars to the Vancouver Aquarium to bail them out, despite a huge outcry against it.
See below the full text of today's article in the Vancouver Sun.
Also, please click on the link above to read the Globe&Mail OP ED titled "For the Vancouver Aquarium, the enduring legacy of this pandemic should be reinvention".
VANCOUVER SUN - Feds make $2-million splash to bail out historic aquarium
Facility to reopen with limited capacity in time to cash in on return of tourism
The federal government has come up with $2 million to help the Vancouver Aquarium stop the flow of the red ink the facility has been spilling since it shutdown on March 17 due to COVID-19, officials announced on Friday morning.
The aquarium saw some $3.2 million a month in admission fees evaporate when it closed due to COVID-19, and in April, CEO Lasse Gustavsson warned that the facility was in danger of closing permanently without help.
Burnaby North-Seymour MP Terry Beech is expected to unveil the $2-million cheque that will help cover essential services and operating costs as the aquarium reopens to the public with a reimagined, so-called crowd-free experience for visitors in time to cash in on tourist season.
“We’re still fighting for the Vancouver Aquarium’s long-term survival, but this support from Western Economic Diversification Canada (WEDC) is crucial,” Gustavsson said in a news release. “We’re hopeful the community will continue to support the 64-yearold Vancouver Aquarium by buying a ticket and coming back to visit us once we reopen to the public.”
Beech said in a news release that the grant is intended to help the Ocean Wise Conservation Association, the non-profit group that operates the aquarium, to “continue inspiring the next generation of environmental stewards.”
The funding is part of the “targeted support” to key attractions so they can draw local visitors while Canada’s borders remained closed to the U.S. and international tourism, said Terry Duguid, MP for Winnipeg and parliamentary secretary to Melanie Joly, minister of economic development and the minister responsible for the WEDC.
“British Columbia’s tourism sector has been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and needs help to recover in time for Canadians to explore their communities this summer and beyond,” Duguid said in a news release.
Ocean Wise had managed to stave off bankruptcy thanks to snap fundraising that brought in $1 million in just two weeks, Postmedia
News reported in May.
The aquarium laid off 60 per cent of its staff, some 350 workers, when it closed on March 17, but still faced $1 million a month in costs to care for the 70,000 animals, fish and insects in its exhibits, and keep the facility maintained.
In April, Ocean Wise applied to government for a $9.5-million emergency grant to make up for the lost admissions revenue, and Gustavsson warned that without help, the organization would be underwater by summer. The CEO said the group was looking for new homes for its creatures.
The aquarium expects to reopen at 20 to 30 per cent capacity, just as public health officials have approved the start of Phase 3 of B.C.’s economic restart plan, which allows for more domestic tourism, both within the province and across provincial borders.
Aquarium visitors must reserve tickets online, and staff have reconfigured a layout that gives the public a one-way, 90 -minute tour through its 85 exhibits that are arranged in six zones.