Multicultural association still struggling with finances
Rachel Ward | CBC News | Posted: August 29, 2016 10:00 AM | Last Updated: August 29, 2016
'They're so disorganized. Essentially, the board has collapsed,' says former festival vendor
The future of the Multicultural Association of Nova Scotia is under threat, CBC News has learned.
For more than 30 years, MANS has run a Halifax-area multicultural festival as a vibrant showcase of diversity in the province.
But earlier this year, vendors and others were shocked to find out the festival was cancelled.
Records show the group had intended to instead run MultiFest, as it was known, this past weekend, but that didn't happen.
Documents obtained by CBC News through freedom of information legislation reveal the association is at risk of collapsing under a slew of lawsuits, funding deficits and general disarray.
"They're so disorganized," former festival vendor Jonathan Roberts said.
"Essentially the board has collapsed so that nobody's doing anything."
Must pay festival vendors
In May, CBC News reported the association owed $26,500 to contractors for unpaid bills from previous festivals. After that, two food vendors, including Roberts, took the group to small claims court alleging they paid fees to take part in June's festival, but weren't paid back or even contacted when it was cancelled.
In August, small claims court ordered the association to return the fees.
The association's website is down, and the festival's website is three years out of date. The phone number was disconnected for months, and now directs callers to a different cultural group.
Numerous requests for an interview with its executive director have gone without a response. A board member said the group won't comment.
Media questions about how the group was being run prompted the provincial government to take a closer look at the nearly $75,000 of funding it gave to the Multicultural Association of Nova Scotia annually.
After that, it stopped paying wages for festival staff, and ended funding for other festival expenses.
'Abundantly clear' staff must go
The Labour Department, through the Job Creation Partnership, had been paying for four previously unemployed people to gain work experience organizing the Multicultural Festival.
The province removed the staff after one of them contacted the department in light of the media coverage, according to internal government emails.
"Information provided to us about the working conditions made it abundantly clear that we cannot continue with the placement of these participants on this project," a manager with Employment Nova Scotia said in a May 20 email.
The department offered the workers three weeks of severance pay and help finding jobs at other Halifax-area festivals, the manager wrote.
The province declined interview requests.
'Thorough investigation' into spending promised
Throughout the setbacks, the association continued to assure the province it would run a festival this summer.
A redacted May 30 letter from the group to the province included a promise to "do a thorough investigation into the organization's previous spending and financing."
It's unclear if that happened. The Communities, Culture and Heritage department confirmed the group never completed a separate annual audit for the province.
Board member confusion
And it's equally unclear who's still involved with the group.
Board member Debbie Phinney, who declined an interview, is no longer listed on the board at the Joint Stocks Registry.
Theresa Halfpenny is the only person still listed, but she said she quit the board more than two years ago and knows nothing of the group's current troubles.
'Knew they were in trouble'
Several former board members who spoke to CBC News said they quit about five years ago because they felt like they were left in the dark about finances.
"I knew they were in trouble, but I didn't think they were that far down," former board member Carol Terry said.
"I felt like I failed," another former board member, Javad Dedekhani, said.
"I shouldn't have chickened out and resigned. I should have stuck with it."
After he left, he helped start a similar multicultural association in Pictou County.
Provincial staff express regret
Dedekhani said he thinks multicultural activities should be overseen and funded by the province.
According to documents from the government, staff tried but struggled to help the Multicultural Association find a solution.
"It is too bad this situation has evolved to this point," one provincial staffer said in a June email.
"I have read the letters, but note they have not provide[d] us with a figure regarding the assistance they require to move the organization further."