CNE chief hopeful fair can rally from losses

Union says it has yet to hear from city to restart negotiations despite council’s special meeting

The Canadian National Exhibition is hopeful that if the community rallies behind the event for its second week, the fair can make up some of the $1.5 million in projected lost revenue attributed to an ongoing labour dispute.

“Sometimes it’s difficult to bring that revenue back, but who knows,” said CNE chief executive Virgina Ludy.

“If the weather gods stay on our side and suddenly the community feels it’s important to come out and support the event, we may see a shift and I’m hopeful that will happen.”

Ludy sent a letter outlining her concerns to Mayor John Tory and city councillors in time for their special council meeting Tuesday, where mostly in a confidential session they weighed in on the labour dispute between the city and Local 58 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE).

On Wednesday, Tory said he played a leadership role at the meeting and was backed by a “strong majority” of councillors, but their position was not to “decide who was running labour relations for Exhibition Place.”

The Star has reported that a source with knowledge of the in-camera meeting said Tory did not support a motion urging both sides to bring in a thirdparty arbitrator to settle the matter, but instead backed one for non-binding mediation, which passed.

Tory said council provided “some encouragement for them to get back to the negotiating table” and that he’s “optimistic we’ll see some fruit borne of those efforts in the coming days.”

The Exhibition Place board of governors, chaired by Councillor Mark Grimes, should be where decisions about labour relations on the cityowned grounds are made, Tory said Wednesday.

After the special council meeting, the union reached out to the city to restart negotiations but, as of Wednesday afternoon, hadn’t heard anything back, said IATSE president Justin Antheuis.

“We were hoping we’d be back to work because we’d have an agreement or go to arbitration. Neither have happened,” Antheuis said.

Ludy said despite sending the letter, she didn’t have high expectations that council would get the parties back to the table, but thought it was important the mayor and councillors know the dispute was hurting this year’s attendance levels. She noted the $1.5 million in expected loss revenue is based on data from three days, and not the days it rained.

It’s not the picket lines that are physically obstructing people from attending, Ludy said.

It’s the “virtual perimeter” on social media where the union is asking for a boycott this year’s

CNE that’s deterring people.

More than 400 stagehands and technical employees have been locked out since July 20, after months of bargaining. The union said negotiations broke down because the city wants to contract out IATSE jobs and allow tenants at Exhibition Place, like Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment

(MLSE), to bring in their own workers.

The city says Exhibition Place is trying to modernize its collective agreement to become more competitive with other event spaces.