FERGUS – 'Crucial' staffing and financial changes are required if the Fergus Grand Theatre wants to ensure its success into the next century.
Or at least that's what staff said in a new report presented to Centre Wellington council Monday evening in which it was recommended the Fergus Grand Theatre (FGT) create more community-focused programs, improve its fiscal sustainability and address ongoing staffing gaps to increase the landmark's profitability and success over the next five years.
At the meeting, council approved preliminary "key actions" from the work plan including working with the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisory Committee to ensure programming occurs during "culturally significant times," adding a Theatre for Young Audiences presenting function for local schools and implementing the new staffing recommendations, rates and fees as was approved in the 2025 budget.
The report will be posted to Connect CW and circulated to some community committees for public feedback over the next six weeks before it returns to council for final approval in April.
This follows council direction from December 2023 asking staff to investigate the profitability of the FGT and ways to support its "continued growth" as it enters its second century.
"By continuously improving programming and its impact, the goal is to strike a balance between increasing revenue and meeting other key performance indicators such as the impact and reach of programming," said staff in the report. "This approach will ensure that the FGT not only remains a hub for cultural engagement but also contributes to the economic development of the community."
To address the staffing shortcomings, community development manager Kristen Bettiol said the township is looking at enhancing staffing levels to meet "growing service demands," developing a sustainable staffing model, integrating volunteer support and evaluating and clarifying the volunteer board's role.
The report said the FGT is currently operating "beyond the capacity" of its existing business model and while demand for rental space continues to "exceed availability," the FGT’s "heavy reliance" on volunteer support has become "unsustainable" given the current levels of activity.
As bookings and programming increase, staff said maintaining the FGT's level of service through volunteer support alone "has become challenging" and filling gaps in volunteer availability and skills has "increasingly fallen" to the theatre coordinator. A permanent, full-time customer service representative was budgeted in 2025 to help with some of these issues.
"Addressing this issue is crucial for maintaining the long-term sustainability of FGT operations," said staff in the report.
For fiscal sustainability, staff recommend reviewing and updating rental rates and fee structures to "gradually align client charges more closely with performance costs," as well as maximizing rental revenue and marketing efforts and introducing new revenue streams.
The report said the FGT will continue to require "some form of property tax subsidization for the foreseeable future" and the subsidization is anticipated to increase by approximately $148,000 in 2025 to support additional part-time staff to alleviate operational challenges.
If the township wanted to avoid subsidization, staff said they could double fees and charges but that would be a "huge barrier" for many theatre users.
Theatre rentals, performance rentals and hourly rental rates are set to increase 2.5 per cent in 2025 while non-ticketed public event fees will increase 13.2 per cent.
Bettiol said staff are also looking at leveraging the theatre's presenting series to utilize off-peak times and highlight the diverse and culturally significant areas as well as expanding its youth-focused offerings, collaborating with the business community and supporting community groups through a co-presenting model.
The report said rental performances tend to see higher ticket sales per show and often bring in larger audiences while the presenting series doesn't always draw in the same sized audience but is intended for cultural growth. In 2024, 19,616 rental tickets were sold compared to 670 presenting tickets.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
