Author Bryan Perro points out the serious financial difficulties of Culture Shawinigan, of which he has been general and artistic director for eight years, and reiterates that he has nothing to blame.
“I can answer all the questions,” Perro said Tuesday morning during a brief telephone interview with Le Journal, before referring us to an interview he had just given to Radio-Canada Mauricie in which he insisted he had nothing to blame himself for .
As the daily newspaper Le Nouvelliste reports, the board of Culture Shawinigan wants the founder of Amos Daragon to leave the management. He is blamed for higher than expected deficits, his accountability is questioned and the appearance of conflicts of interest is complained about because Perro awarded contracts to himself and passed them on to members of his family.
According to Le Nouvelliste, Culture Shawinigan officials expected a deficit of $142,000 in June. However, in the fall they discovered a financial hole of $640,000.
The situation even affects the Ministry of Culture, which has decided to withhold $200,000 from a $317,000 grant it must pay to the organization.
“It’s coming back”
At Radio-Canada, Bryan Perro argued that this is not the first time he has faced a difficult financial situation since leading the organization. “It’s going back, it’s being revised, it’s being pushed back for five years,” he says.
He denied that the Street Theater Festival, which reportedly reported $480,000 in expenses, only had a budget of $100,000. “It was more like $324,000. You can’t do an event like that with $100,000, let’s see,” he said with a laugh.
Is he still the man for the job? Bryan Perro, who is currently on vacation, told the Journal that he plans to give himself some “needed time to reflect” before his return to work, which he had planned before the Montreal Book Fair.