STORY:
Ottawa 2000 Near Collapse

City or region must come through with cash or celebrations will fold

Unless Canada's capital city comes through with a grant, New Year's Eve celebrations in Ottawa could be a bust. According to the Ottawa Citizen, organizers of Ottawa 2000 say the group is near collapse because the staff hasn't been paid.

Doug Hotston, the coordinator of Ottawa 2000 has been working for four months without pay. Shirley Westeinde, the group's volunteer leader tells the Citizen she blames the City of Ottawa for the problems.

"Unless we get some funds soon from regional or municipal governments, Ottawa 2000 will have to shut down," Weesteinde tells the Citizen. In a 7-4 vote, the City council decided to turn down a request to donate $33,500 to Ottawa 2000 because it could not afford to contribute any money.

The group was counting on the money which would have been less than half the $75,000 already contributed by the regional municipality of Ottawa-Carleton. The regional donation is almost all gone. Ottawa 2000 was hoping the city's grant could stimulate neighboring municipalities to donate cash as well. So far, only Nepean has donated money, giving $12,000, a proportional amount based on the region's population.

Ottawa 2000 is two years old and was created to co-ordinate community involvement in millennium celebrations, build civic pride and generate new economic growth in the region.

Westeinde told the Herald Ottawa 2000's collapse would give a black eye to the nation's capital and leave community groups without an umbrella organization to give advice and help in getting funding for millennium projects.

City leaders reported said the city never promised any money for Ottawa 2000 and that they were funding their own millennium projects.

One of Ottawa 2000's roles is to encourage people to celebrate the millennium at home and get their friends and relatives to visit during the year 2000.

The Ottawa Tourism and Convention Authority tells the Herald it can't estimate how much money will be lost to the region if Ottawa 2000 closes and abandons its role in attracting tourists. But it says an increase of only three per cent in the number of tourists next year would pump an extra $22 million into the local economy. Of that, $1.6 million would be in local taxes.

Source: Ottawa Citizen

DATE: 7/08/99

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