Creative Enterprise Initiative asking for $300K to end operations
Embattled Waterloo organization will dissolve its board and end all activities by Dec. 31, 2016
Waterloo Region's Creative Enterprise Initiative will cease to exist by the end of 2016 and is asking local governments for $300,000 in funding to help it wind down operations.
On Nov. 26, the embattled organization sent a letter to the region, outlining a plan to dissolve its board and end all activities by Dec. 31, 2016.
"There was never an intent for the Creative Enterprise Initiative to become an institution and to be funded forever," said acting director Roger Farwell in an interview with CBC. "It was meant to do the work that it needed to do...and then, when it could find and align synergies, to work itself out of a job."
Promoting local arts and culture
Created in 2011, the municipally-funded CEI was designed to attract the type of people to Waterloo Region that planners envisioned could help usher in the community's transition from a manufacturing centre into a technology hub by promoting the local arts and culture scene.
The idea was that by showcasing the local arts and culture through its flagship website, grandsocial.ca, CEI could attract top talent to the region, build a new economy and set the table for future economic prosperity.
"If you go back to the beginning...we're a long way from where we were," Farwell said. "It was meant to agitate and cause discussion and, like I say, not everyone is going to be happy with the outcomes along the way, but we've made tremendous progress."
No longer needed
The organization underwent a full-scale review of its mandate in 2014, after its board of directors sacked former CEO Heather Sinclair.
The review resulted in two new priorities: to help people in Waterloo Region find entertaining things to do and to help local groups collaborate and come up with creative projects to tie the region together.
Those priorities do not require the oversight of a stand-alone organization according to Farwell, hence CEI's decision to close.
$300K in transition funding
Over the next year, Farwell said CEI would focus on finding an existing community organization to take over its two primary goals.
"This year is about us finishing the work that we began," he said. "These two priorities will find homes in terms of being positioned in organizations where they're best suited to succeed."
In order to ensure a smooth transition, the organization is asking local governments for the following:
- Region of Waterloo - $141,000
- City of Kitchener - $86,205
- City of Cambridge - $45,000
- City of Waterloo - $45,000
CEI received these amounts from local governments in 2015.
In all, the organization has received more than $1 million in public funds since it was founded in 2011.
LISTEN to Melanie Ferrier's report about CEI on The Morning Edition, Thursday Dec. 10.