Sponsors allegedly flee Transcona festival over charges

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This article was published 01/05/2015 (4136 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A growing list of sponsors has abandoned Transcona’s annual Hi Neighbour Festival, with sources close to the event attributing the exit to legal troubles facing the festival’s chairman.

Several documents obtained by the Free Press point to key partners opting out of sponsoring the festival this year, including a longtime sponsor, Transcona BIZ, and the City of Winnipeg.

In a letter sent to the festival’s board of directors in February, the BIZ said “funding for 2015 has been suspended,” but gave no reason.

Meanwhile, after years of leading the festival’s annual parade, members of the Transcona and District Pipe Band decided in March to withdraw, citing “moral conflicts beyond our control,” in a letter sent by the band’s president to the board.

Ray Ulasy, chairman of the Hi Neighbour Festival for the past two years, has faced legal troubles since he was charged with two counts of trafficking firearms in December as part of the RCMP’s Project Distress.

None of the allegations has been proven in court and Ulasy is presumed innocent.

Ulasy said the charge he faces is two counts of offering to traffic firearms.

Steve Mymko, a 30-year resident of Transcona and executive director of Buhler Recreation Park, said the park’s board made the difficult decision to not allow the festival to use the facility for its annual fireworks show because of differences within the festival’s leadership.

“Who is on our board is all the movers and shakers in the community and they do not take this stuff lightly, and they came to a decision that way. It was a tough decision for us to make,” he said, noting the park had hosted the fireworks for seven years.

“You would hope the board would maybe request for their leader to step down until his personal issues could be resolved.”

Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries remains the presenting sponsor for the festival, but since March, the list of sponsors has shrunk considerably.

‘Sponsors come and sponsors go and at the end of day the Hi Neighbour Festival this year is going full-tilt’

— Ray Ulasy

Ulasy, who unsuccessfully challenged Transcona Coun. Russ Wyatt in last October’s civic election, says it is common for sponsors to pull out.

“Like last year, we had sponsors pull out and we’ve got some unbelievable sponsors come in, so sponsors come and sponsors go and at the end of day, the Hi Neighbour Festival this year is going full-tilt,” he said.

He said he initially stepped aside as chair upon being charged. But the board, he said, decided his presumed innocence until proven guilty meant there was no reason for him to step down.

“My charges have nothing to do with my commitment to the festival, the community and to volunteering,” Ulasy said.

A list posted online in March cites 16 “major sponsors” for 2015, including the City of Winnipeg, Canad Inns, Birchwood Honda and Vickar Nissan.

Legal officials with the city sent Ulasy a letter in March asking him to remove the city’s logo from the festival’s website, stating “although the city of Winnipeg provided funding in 2014, no funding or other support from the city for the festival is available in 2015.”

As of Thursday evening, the list online had dwindled to six. Ulasy attributes the change to the website being outdated and listing last year’s sponsors. He said more sponsors will be added this month.

The parade and festival has been a mainstay in the community since 1964 and midway, music and food vendors take over Transcona’s streets each June.

This year, however, Mymko worries it won’t be the same with the lack of sponsors.

“We’ve always been proud of our festival, the way community has come together and what it has brought, and now I am afraid it is going to look like a really watered-down version of that festival,” he said.

kristin.annable@freepress.mb.ca