THUNDER BAY -- Despite a growing audience, the city’s symphony has also been running a deficit for the last three years.
Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra executive director Shannon Whidden said they have seen fantastic growth in their audience numbers over the last few years, but that’s been countered by the fact they’ve also been carrying a deficit.
In the 2013-14 season, the TBSO was $67,000 in the red.
“It’s about three per cent of our operating budget, which is not negligible. It’s manageable, but it is something that we’ve decided we need to make a very conscious and concerted effort to address,” said Whidden.
The not-for-profit organization has gone through an extensive financial process to find the root causes of the deficit and the solutions to address it.
One way the of tackling it is for the nine administration staff members to take a wage cut, Whidden included.
They also looked at where they could make cuts without impacting the artistic integrity of the symphony or the programming.
“We took the 2014-15 budget and looked at the expenditures we could control and made some very careful and calculated decisions to make reductions,” Whidden said.
The whole purpose of this season’s budget is to begin pushing down the deficit, so they TBSO doesn’t have to consider larger cuts or eventually closing its doors.
“The reality is we’ve taken the steps that we need to ensure we don’t run into that difficulty,” he said. “We’re here to stay.”
The TBSO has been in operation for 54 years and has 30 full-time musicians.
It receives funding from the federal, provincial and municipal governments as well as corporate and individual donations.
