A crisis in Shawinigan’s culture: Former employees break the silence

Self-produced, questionable ticket promotion, questionable transparency… Brian Perot’s administration at the helm of Shawinigan culture has been tagged with yes in recent hours, but what we understand from the testimonies gathered is that it has been worrying since he took office 8 Years.

An employee, whose identity is being protected, has worked for 12 years in the management of the organization under two different public administrations. She saw that the tone had changed radically and that it was no longer necessary to oppose the decisions: now Brian Pirro’s decisions.

“He wanted to control everything, and the people who were more resistant, or who didn’t necessarily accept his way of doing things, were pushed down. One by one we all went down,” she admitted.

Mr. Perot has done a major clean-up of the old guard. Those who were in office at the time have some memories of his administration and feel the same anxiety as they did eight years ago.

“With Brian, sometimes I knew where [il ne détournait pas nécessairement]But allocating amounts for other things or obstructing access to the amounts, but without this applying to what was initially allocated for it. “It was against my values,” the employee added.

The former general manager of the place did not want to play the role of protector in this matter, but she nevertheless admitted that she asked herself many questions about the new way of managing.

“The deficit is widened by bad decisions. It is exacerbated by exceptional situations and, of course, by lack of income or ambitions that we do not have the means to achieve,” said Louise Martin.

An analysis promised by an outside company will be able to confirm the source of this massive budget hole.

“It is not unusual among our member broadcasters, at least for types of projects like this type of organization, to accumulate very large deficits. Now, this also raises the whole question of transparency,” raised RIDEAU’s Director General, Julie-Anne Richard.

“Did CA know about it, but she didn’t know about it at the time? But you know, she’s the type of person who was able to give you the answers so you ended up sticking to her ideas and vision,” the former employee added.

“I left it in good financial shape. Our goal as a non-profit organization and performing arts provider is not to make a profit, but to have a balanced budget. “I just hope everyone takes responsibility in this situation and that Culture Shawinigan celebrates its 20th anniversary properly in 2024,” he explained. The former director-general is hopeful, arguing that the current deficit may not be just the tip of the iceberg.

For its part, the Ministry of Culture confirmed that in 2021 it had already noticed gaps in reporting through auditing. It has made it possible to prove that the expenses incurred by the organization do not ultimately merit subsidies.