by PATRICK LEJTENYI

The whole confusing situation is still baffling Suzanne Girard. The director general of Divers/Cité, Montreal's annual weeklong gay pride bash, wonders aloud about the thinking behind the recent public budget cuts to the popular festival.

"Is it because we're in Quebec? Is it because of Gomery? Is it because we're gay?" she wonders. "I just don't know." She says government officials haven't provided a clear answer on why they didn't get the money.

Last month, she was informed by both the federal Department of Canadian Heritage and Tourism Quebec that the festival would lose a significant chunk of funding: $50,000 from the province, $60,000 from the feds. This, six weeks before the festival begins on July 25.

To make matters worse in Girard's point of view is the money given elsewhere: namely, to Pride Toronto, that city's weeklong festival of all things gay, which got its $50,000 from the Department.

"This is not to knock Toronto, I'm not going to compare our events and I'm glad they got it," says Girard. "But why didn't we? ... The Montreal event was refused because they said we didn't fit Heritage's criteria. But Pride Toronto fits the criteria? We're known for the cultural aspect of our festival, we have homegrown Quebec programming with Quebec talent - we're known for that around the world."

Well runs dry

Therein, perhaps, lies the rub. According to Valérie Raymond, a Department spokeswoman, Divers/Cité's success over the years (the 2005 edition marks lucky number 13) has shown that it's a sustainable, popular and, for lack of a better word, mainstream event. Thus it doesn't need federal funding.

"We have very specific guidelines," says Raymond. "We can't give money to a group if it's in bad financial shape, or if it's in very good shape. We want our financial support to be value-added. For instance, does the event have original programming from more than one province? And there has to be people performing different artistic activities, and we'll look at the type of activities - are they taking risks, does it have artistic merit, and so on? And the performers must be professional artists. We want to give the money directly to the artists."

What happened with the money, Raymond says, is this: thanks to the federal sponsorship program - yes, that one - Divers/Cité received money from Canadian Heritage for several years. That money ended two years ago. Last year, Divers/Cité, along with dozens of other festivals and events, asked for the money again, which they received but won't receive again. "Last year we gave out 67 non-recurring contributions," she says. "These were meant to be transitional, a one-year offer to help get these events back on their feet."

Divers/Cité applied for funding from Canadian Heritage's Quebec regional office (there are five across the country), Pride Toronto from the Ontario one. "But it should be the same for all of Canada," says Girard. "They can't treat people differently because they live in Newfoundland or Quebec or B.C. or Ontario." Raymond says she can't comment on the discrepancy as she "doesn't have the details of both files."

Mary Jago, a representative from Canadian Heritage's Ontario office, says she can only comment on why Pride Toronto received money. "Basically, they got [$50,000] because they're trying to professionalize their artistic component, and because of the outreach they've done to various different communities," she says.

Going ahead as planned

While this year's festival won't be affected by the cuts, says Girard, it puts the 2006 edition into question. But she still doesn't understand the eight-month delay between the application and the response.

Nevertheless, Divers/Cité will be going ahead as planned, says festival media rep Chris DiRaddo, with no cancellation despite the cuts. But after this year's edition, he says, and once the numbers are crunched, organizers are going to have to take a look at expenses and figure things out from there. What it most likely means is that they are going to have to ask for more donations from the private sector.