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Funding cuts push feds to look for corporate sponsors for Ottawa events

Funding cuts push feds to look for corporate sponsors for Ottawa events

Budget cuts have the National Capital Commission (NCC) looking for sources of revenue and it's apparently considering expanding corporate sponsorship as a possibility.

The NCC is the Crown corporation responsible for administering federally-owned property in the Ottawa region. It looks after the capital's major tourist attractions and also organizes cultural events such as Canada Day celebrations.

But like every government agency, the commission has felt the Conservative government's budget knife and needs to find new funding sources.

Documents obtained by The Canadian Press under access-to-information legislation show the NCC is considering a proposal to generate almost $4.5 million in sponsorship revenue over the next five years.

A report prepared for the commission by consulting firm TrojanOne Ltd., which specializes in something called "integrated brand activation," found sponsors could be found for things like biking events, art displays, the annual Christmas lights festival and for Gatineau Park, the region's green space across the Ottawa River in Quebec.

Corporate sponsorship isn't new to the capital, CP noted. The NCC has welcomed business partners for three decades and it brings in about $1 million a year.

Telecom technology firm Alcatel-Lucent is a partner in a seasonal Sunday bicycling event and the popular Winterlude festival and the Rideau Canal Skateway are underwritten by American Express.

[ Related: Heritage to take over Canada Day, Winterlude from NCC ]

Even the nationally televised Canada Day show on Parliament Hill, as well as other shows around Ottawa on the national day, are partly sponsored by a range of companies, including Loblaws, McDonald's and Lego, CP said.

But with funding cuts, the commission conceded it needs to expand the corporate presence to keep its programs going.

"A lot of government agencies are looking at new ways of doing business, at ways to reduce our dependency on public funds," said Sandra Pecek, the commission's director of communications and public affairs, told CP.

The NCC is also losing control to many of its annual cultural events, including Winterlude and the Canada Day show, to the federal Department of Canadian Heritage this fall, part of a plan to make events more nationally focused than they were under the "locally based," commission, CP reported. The budget last March said the changes were partly to prepare for national celebrations of the 150th anniversary of Confederation in 2017.

Rules ban advertising on Parliament Hill but, Pierre Manoni, a spokesman for Canadian Heritage, told CP that "on an exceptional basis, commercial advertising is permitted to recognize financial sponsors of events organized by a federal department, agency or Crown corporation."

Manoni said three sponsors — Chicken Farmers of Canada, the Loblaws Group of Companies and Manulife Financial — will receive "visibility" during this year's Canada Day show, anteing up $350,000 in fees.

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Critics were not opposed to some limited corporate sponsorship but worried about creeping corporatization of public culture.

"While I have no problem with a corporate sponsorship of special events, concerts and so on, I have real problems with corporate sponsorships of a Crown corporation, a public agency that is supposed to look out for the public good in our nation's capital," Maude Barlow, chairwoman of the Council of Canadians, told CP.

"What will these corporations get in return for supporting Gatineau Park? ... Have hills and landmarks named after them?"

New Democrat MP Pierre Nantel, the opposition critic for Canadian Heritage, said his party is not opposed to corporate sponsorship as long as it doesn't compromise the NCC's autonomy.

"Sponsorships should go toward very specific activities," he told CP.