The major source of funding for the project to conjoin Brock’s school of fine and performing arts with the Niagara Centre for the Arts has yet to come through, and that is leaving some of the project’s proponents anxious.
Brock University is still awaiting an answer from the Province on whether its request for $26.1 million will be approved.
The money represents more than half of the cost for Brock to move its school downtown to the site of the former Canada Hair Cloth building. The university intends to raise the remaining more than $20 million through fundraising.
The funding request was made back in September 2008, when the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities asked post-secondary institutions for a priority list for capital projects over the next 10 years. When Brock submitted its list, the downtown arts project was right at the top.
But then the federal government announced the Knowledge Infrastructure Program (KIP) in the 2009 budget, which required provincial matching dollars. In response, the Province announced it would match the federal dollars.
This put Brock in a tough position as it already had a $33.5-million commitment from the Province (announced in February 2008) for the $109-million Niagara Health and Bioscience Research Complex. If it submitted the school of fine and performing arts project, it wouldn’t get federal dollars for the bioscience centre.
Instead, it submitted the bioscience centre project, which was approved, along with 27 other projects at post-secondary institutions across Ontario, and the $1.1-billion federal-provincial fund was announced at Brock in May 2009.
This means there is no formal application for funding for the school of fine and performing arts apart from being at the top of its capital priority list.
So while the city has already lined up its funding for the arts centre, including the $36 million from the federal and provincial governments announced in May, the two project components are so intertwined that the lack of funding for one puts the whole enterprise on hold.
“All of the project is in jeopardy,” Rosemary Hale, dean of Brock’s faculty of humanities, said. “The projects are so intertwined that neither can move forward without the funding.”
She explained the deadlines tied to the other sources of funding mean they need an answer as soon as possible.
“The danger point is right now,” she said.
She added the $15-million donation made by Marilyn I. Walker, whose name now graces the school of fine and performing arts, was never intended to be fully allocated towards the project’s capital costs.
“That’s been a major misconception,” she said.
At the time, the donation was heralded as transformational, with Mayor Brian McMullan telling This Week it could be the catalyst to make the project a reality.
However, Hale explained, the funds are meant for other costs associated with creating the school and making it a premiere institution, such as hiring chairs.
“Right now, the project is in stop mode until the funding comes through,” she said.
She said the university had hoped there would have been a dual announcement made in May when the city received its funding. There wasn’t, and the university has been waiting ever since.
On Wednesday, Jan. 6, when the project’s joint executive committee, chaired by Lincoln Fabric’s David Howes, met for the last time, it was agreed around the table the entire project is at a standstill until the university receives the funding commitment.
However, ministry spokesperson Patrick O’Gorman said while the minister is aware the project is a priority for Brock, there is no announcement forthcoming.
He explained not all the projects listed in the capital priority list received funding through the Knowledge Infrastructure Program, and those that didn’t will be considered later.
“We’re looking at providing funding for these projects over the longer term,” he said.
From the beginning, the project has been conceived as a partnership.
The feasibility study the city and Brock commissioned and was released in late 2008 stated the very success of the project is the nature of the partnership. Not only will having the two located beside each other create cost efficiencies, it also adds stability to it and will help build a critical mass of both arts users and audience traffic.
“I believe it’s a much stronger project with the partnership we’ve struck with Brock University,” McMullan said to This Week.
He said he’s yet to hear any reason to cause him to believe the funding is not going to come through.
He said, though, the project is at a stage when the partners need an answer to move forward. Much of the advance planning has been done, he said, and in order for the project to move forward in a concrete way, such as through the tendering phase, the funding must be secured.
“We’re at the stage as we look to take the next steps, it’s prudent to make sure all the funding is in place,” he said.
To that end, McMullan said he wrote a letter to recently appointed MPP Gerry Phillips, minister of energy and infrastructure, to impress upon him the project’s importance. The letter was copied to both St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley and Premier Dalton McGuinty.
McMullan said that he wrote to that ministry because it has been involved with the project from the beginning. He explained the funding the city received for its portion of the project came from Infrastructure Ontario, and while Brock must work through the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, he was told all major capital dollars ultimately come from the former.
“It sounds like a lot of things have to go by Infrastructure Ontario — that’s what I’m told,” he said, adding Bradley is also kept apprised on such communications, as he would know which ministry needs to be involved.
“To cover our bases, we make sure Bradley is copied,” he said.

 Story by M. Zettle at Niagara This Week at:  http://www.niagarathisweek.com/news/article/263225--funding-for-brock-arts-school-uncertain