(file photo/battlefordsNOW staff)

By Angela Brown

Dekker Centre planning for 2022

Dekker Centre projecting slight surplus for new budget; vaccination protocols in effect

Oct 14, 2021 | 3:46 PM

The Dekker Centre is planning for its 2022 budget for the performing arts centre, after navigating a challenging past year and a half during the pandemic.

General manager Kali Weber gave a report to North Battleford council at this week’s meeting.

“Thank you to council and the city for your continued support as we weather the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It’s been a difficult year and a half for everyone, and we are immensely grateful for the support we receive,” she said.

The Dekker Centre has implemented a proof of full vaccination policy for staff, volunteers, artists and patrons entering the facility for public and private events, to keep everyone safe. Masks are also mandated. She said the policy will help people feel more comfortable about attending events in person.

The organization has only seen a few cancellations due to the policy, but they were related to rental events, not Dekker Centre presented shows.

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For the new season promotion, the Dekker Centre is continuing to announce a half season at a time. It announced four shows this fall and will announce another four shows at the end of November for January to June 2022 performances.

“This means if we have to postpone or cancel anything, we are doing most of that behind the scenes without having to involve the public,” Weber said.

To finish off the 2021 fiscal year, the Dekker Centre is projecting a surplus of about $140,000, which Weber said can be attributed to subsidies from the provincial and federal governments the organization is able to receive as a non profit during the pandemic. She said the organization aims to direct these dollars towards capital funding and projects to improve the facility. Weber said there appears to be still some questions related to the Dekker Centre’s eligibility from 2020, so $100,000 of that amount has been put into a restricted asset which will not be touched as precaution until the details are resolved.

Looking at the year ahead, the organization is projecting a surplus of $4,160 for the 2022 budget.

Weber said to prepare the 2022 budget the Dekker Centre used the 2018 and 2019 budgets as references for comparison, as they were closer to normal budgets before the pandemic.

The Dekker Centre is budgeting for an annual operating grant of $235,000 from the City for North Battleford for 2022.

Additional grants

The non profit organization is also continuing to apply for other grants for support.

The Dekker Centre received $15,000 from the federal government through the Canadian Heritage department, through a fund called the Canada Arts Presentation Fund for the 2021-2022 season.

It also budgeting for $10,000 in additional community grants from the City of North Battleford Community Grant program, funded by Sask. Lotteries and SaskCulture.

The organization plans to apply for a $20,000 grant, through the Saskatchewan Arts Board, known as SK Arts, which can help with staffing costs, administrative costs and the cost of presenting artists, for example.

Coun. Kent Lindgren, who is also one of the city council representatives on the Dekker Centre board, commended the Dekker Centre board for looking for different funding programs outside of the City of North Battleford, something that he said hasn’t always been done in the past.

“Historically, going back from my time sitting on that board, granting from other levels of government and private funding agencies or options hasn’t always been looked at,” he said.

He said for some granting bodies, such as through Canadian Heritage, a case for the funding often has to be made over a numbers of years.

“[For] some of those, while not successful in the year, it is building a case into the future for those larger granting options,” Lindgren said.

The Dekker Centre board plans to continue to fundraise to increase revenue as well, and has earmarked $10,000 to raise for the 2022 fiscal year.

“We are really hoping to get a fundraising program together, and those would be for special projects, for us to continue to develop capacity in the Dekker Centre,” Weber said. “Our 2022 and 2023 season will be our 10-year anniversary. So hopefully by that time we will be seeing a little bit more normalcy in terms of people returning to live indoor events at that point.”

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW