Excerpt from DailyHive - Kenneth Chan
There is an urgency for the federal and provincial governments to provide emergency operating funding to the Pacific National Exhibition to ensure its continuation this year and beyond.
On Wednesday, Vancouver City Council unanimously approved a motion by NPA councillor Lisa Dominato calling on senior governments to support the PNE with wage subsidy funding on a special case basis.
As a non-profit entity under the municipal government, the PNE is a unique situation that has resulted in its ineligibility to access the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS). But other major fairs in the country, operating as independent entities, have been able to access CEWS, including the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto, Calgary Stampede, Edmonton Klondike, and even the Cloverdale Rodeo and BC AgriFair.
Additionally, the PNE’s entertainment venue counterparts in the private sector are also receiving the wage subsidy, namely Rogers Arena and Live Nation.
This situation “clearly puts the PNE at a significant disadvantage in the present and in the post-COVID recovery period to come,” wrote Dominato.
“To date, the PNE has not received a single dollar from any recovery program at any level of government.”
