VANCOUVER - The Department of Canadian Heritage says it just received a formal request Friday from British Columbia for funding to celebrate the province's 150th anniversary.
Media reports suggested B.C. was short-changed by Ottawa while Quebec City got $110 million to celebrate the 400th anniversary this year of its founding.
An official with the province's BC150 secretariat complained in the media that he'd requested funding last year.
But Charles Drouin, a spokesman for the federal heritage department, said in an interview Friday that his department just got the detailed funding bid from BC150 electronically.
"The department has received today the completed funding application from the secretariat," he said, adding he couldn't reveal how much was requested.
"I can only say that until the process is completed it would be inappropriate for us here at Canadian Heritage to estimate how much funding they may be provided with.
"We are eager, though, to work with BC150 in evaluating their application."
Drouin confirmed the department has been communicating with the secretariat, a branch of the B.C. Ministry of Tourism, Sports and the Arts, for several months.
Officials would normally be involved in discussions and briefings with the requesting organization on activities to be funded, he said. The department would then provide an application form to be completed, followed by an assessment.
The B.C. Tourism Ministry said it's been in contact with Ottawa over the last year and was working in recent months to refine the list of supported events.
"We have a good relationship with Ottawa and are confident that our request for funds to help celebrate BC150 will yield positive results," Tourism Minister Stan Hagen said in a statement.
B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell said the province is trying to make the 150th anniversary celebration community-based.
He dodged the opportunity to bash Ottawa on the issue.
"The 400th anniversary of Quebec is an important event in their lives," he said.
"This is something about British Columbia ... the federal government may make some contributions to the activities that we have. To date they have not."
Campbell said criticizing the federal government doesn't do the province any good.
"I want to make sure Canada is contributing to British Columbia's agenda," he said. "They are."
Campbell noted British Columbia is getting about $130 million from a $1-billion federal aid package announced this week to help single-industry towns.
"They've been very big in terms of the Asia-Pacific Gateway, they've been very strong contributors to the Olympics, they've been very active in terms of helping us meet some of our transportation goals," he said.
"Those are the things that I'm focusing my attention on."
Information on the B.C. anniversary is available at http://www.bc150.gov.bc.ca/bc150.aspx
PREVIOUS
