After announcing Thursday the province is chipping in a total of $8.25 million to the Place des Arts project, Sudbury MPP Glenn Thibeault jokingly threw out this little barb — “No pressure, Paul.”
He was referring to the work local MPs Paul Lefebvre and Marc Serré now need to do at their level of government to bring federal funding to the table for the downtown shared arts facility for Francophones.
With the $5 million approved by Greater Sudbury city council last year, the provincial funds and a Place des Arts capital campaign reaching the $1 million mark, funds for the project are at the 50 per cent mark.
Receiving a standing ovation at the June 22 press conference attended by about 100 enthusiastic arts supporters, Thibeault announced $5 million in new funds for Place des Arts from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation.
The province had previously announced $3.25 million for the project in the budget.
“We knew we had to come up with the $8.25 million, which is what the ask was from Place des Arts from the province,” Thibeault said. “The $5 million from the city, the $8.25 million from us, and now they're going after the feds to get their component. The fundraising campaign is continuing to grow.
“This is great news in terms of making sure that we can have more arts and culture downtown.”
Place des Arts president Stephane Gauthier said the provincial funding announcement is very exciting. He said it gives him hope they'll also receive the roughly $13 million they're asking for from the federal government.
“I'm quite confident by the end of the summer we'll have a positive answer,” Gauthier said, adding that if the funding is in place by then, the group should be able to meet its deadline of shovels in the ground by summer 2018.
For his part, Sudbury MP Paul Lefebvre said he's been advocating for the project with Heritage Minister Melanie Joly.
He said there's a specific cultural spaces fund that exists for projects such as Place des Arts.
“I've been working on it already,” he said. “I'm optimistic … I understand what is at stake here.
Everybody in the community has done their part. The municipality has done their part, the province has done their part, so it's the feds' turn to come to the table. We're working on it.”
Place des Arts will be built on what's now the municipal parking lot at the corner of Elgin and Larch streets.
It will house Carrefour francophone de Sudbury, Centre franco-ontarien de folklore, Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario, La Nuit sur l'étang, Éditions Prise de parole, Galerie du Nouvel-Ontario, Salon du livre du Grand Sudbury and Laurentian University's Francophone theatre arts program.
The venue will not only be used by the aforementioned Francophone organizations, but will be available to other performers and organizations in the city, regardless of their language or culture.
The 60,000-square-foot building will include a bar and restaurant area with a capacity of 100 people ideal for performances by local artists, a smaller “black box” theatre with 150 seats and a larger theatre with 300 seats.
There will also be shops for creating theatre costumes and props, artists' studios, administrative space and perhaps even a Francophone daycare.
