Dozens of community groups and individuals use the space, including the theatre, for everything from meetings, lectures, symposiums, to fundraising shows and screening of films, but under a new Public Works and Government Services Canada policy, many groups would face a $300 a day charge for space that once used to be free. The Ottawa Jazz Festival for instance, which rents the auditorium to showcase Canadian jazz artists, says the new fees could cost it up to $10,000 it doesn’t have.
“When you start to slap on fees, it turns it into an exclusive institution. It goes from being a space for Canadians to access for public information and public good, into one that is exclusive, based on your ability to pay,” Dewar said Saturday.
Dewar was reacting to a Citizen report that Public Works will now charge community groups for the use of meeting space and equipment at the LAC on Wellington Street. Area community groups are particularly angry that Public Works imposed the fees without any public consultations, after it took over management of the building last year.
The federal government decided last year there wasn’t enough space in the nation’s capital for bureaucrats to hold meetings, which led to Public Works taking over the LAC building. The federal agency acknowledges that bureaucrats are unlikely to meet during evenings or weekends when the space is largely used by community groups. But in an email from Public Works spokesperson Annie Duguay says that “to ensure best value for Canadian taxpayers, the federal government moved to recover full costs” incurred for the rentals.
Public Works says based on cost recovery, prices will increase 25 per cent annually until 2016 when they will reach full market rate. Under the new rules, a Public Works employee must be at all events and, after 4 p.m. on weekdays and for all Saturday events, be paid 1.5 hours overtime by users. Double time ($92.82 an hour) kicks in on Sundays.
Duguay says community groups and organizations should contact Public Works “to develop accurate estimates based on their unique requirements.”
Dewar says there clearly should be oversight on the use of the space, but it is unfair for community groups to be priced out of a public facility they have used for years.
“The cost that has been put on, the $300 charge is something that is making Library and Archives change from what is a public institution to one that is seemingly mandated to generate revenue, and this undermines the whole idea of what LAC should be,” he said.
Original Article
Source: ottawacitizen.com
Author: Mohammed Adam
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