Federal heritage minister aware of K-W Symphony financial woes, says she'll work with group

The financial troubles of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony — which led the organization to cancel its upcoming season — was brought to the attention of the federal heritage minister in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

Kitchener Centre MP Mike Morrice, a Green party member, asked the federal Liberals what they could do to support the symphony, which has said it's about $2 million in debt.

Morrice said he's been pressing for emergency support for the symphony since last fall.

"I was told in question period back in February that a solution would be found when nothing was done. Two months ago, myself and four other Waterloo region MPs wrote to the [prime minister] imploring the federal government to step in with one-time support we haven't heard back," Morrice said during question period Wednesday afternoon.

He asked if the federal government would step in to ensure the symphony can avoid insolvency.

Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge said her office has been in touch with the symphony about their ongoing financial struggles.

Other arts organizations also struggled during the pandemic and the ministry has worked to provide financial support for many of them.

"We continue to support arts organizations through a range of programs and we'll work with the [symphony] to see how our programs could support them," St-Onge said in her response to Morrice.

Symphony could consider insolvency

In a press release on Tuesday, the symphony's chair of the board of directors Rachel Smith-Spencer said the organization is considering all options "up to and including insolvency."

The statement said the symphony saw "an unprecedented rise in costs following the global pandemic."

Smith-Spencer said "exhaustive efforts were made to secure additional support from governments, major donors, and past supporters" and the symphony is "open to immediate conversations with governments and other potential supporters about possible ways to secure this funding."

A GoFundMe organized by a group of symphony musicians has been launched with a goal of raising the $2 million needed.

"Right now we aren't interested in pointing fingers or assigning blame — we are focused on finding a way to save the orchestra we all love," the "Support your KWSymphony Musicians" GoFundMe page said.

"We don't know if it's possible to raise two million dollars to save this orchestra as it is now, but we do know that musicians in our orchestra are hurting."

As of Thursday morning, it had raised more than $190,000.