The provincial government has announced over $500,000 in funding for the region's pandemic-battered arts and tourism sectors.
An investment of $350,000 will help the regional Southwestern Ontario Tourism Corporation deliver locally driven marketing programs to entice Ontarians to explore their local communities.
Minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Lisa MacLeod made the announcement at Sarnia Bay Marina Tuesday morning.
She said many organizations in the arts and tourism industries rely heavily on government funding.
"I do recognize people will look at it and say 'hey, why are you funding the film festival, it's not moving forward.' Because next year we want it to succeed, and otherwise, without the government's support, they wouldn't have been able to," said MacLeod. "I would be amazed if not 100 per cent of the people here would say that their Ontario in 18 months still has a library, still has a community museum, still has the festival that they love and enjoy every year, so I made a decision in the ministry to make sure that they were viable for 2021 and to make sure that they had the liquidity to survive."
Minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Lisa MacLeod making a funding announcement at Andrew S. Brandt Marina at Sarnia Bay. 11 August 2020. (BlackburnNews.com photo by Colin Gowdy)
MacLeod said the tourism funding will come in three phases: hyper-local, domestic stay-cations, and then finally, welcoming people from around the world in 2023-24.
TSL Executive Director Mark Perrin said the funding will help keep the tourism industry afloat.
"The average provincially is about one of every 10 jobs as reflective of the tourism industry, and in Sarnia-Lambton, we're almost at two in every 10 jobs, so it's so crucial to our local economy to keep things moving, keep things going, and that's what this funding, everything else put together, helps at, and we're ready to welcome people back as soon as we can and when it's safe to do so."
Perrin said pretty well all of the events in Sarnia-Lambton are not-for-profit.
"Just having that funding, allowing them to pay off what bills they do have, stay afloat during these times, it means everything. Our organization, we're able to support more in the marketing role, but this actually gets the bills kind of covered and expenses that way," he said. "We've sat down and said 'okay, with the different funding, the grants, how do we help those events and festivals come back' and this is just a kick-start to that. Obviously the Celebrate Ontario fund is a major component every year to this area and it's going to allow some of those events to continue that we've talked to and are struggling."
Perrin said they'll have more details on how the $350,000 will be spent in the coming weeks.
Since the pandemic began, the province has provided funding totalling $160,000 for the Oil Museum of Canada, the Southwestern International Film Festival, Victoria Playhouse Petrolia, Bluewater Borderfest, and the Centre Culturel Francophone Jolliet.
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