• Place an order, or for other inquiries:
  • 416-923-3567 ext. 3325
  • content@newsmediacanada.ca
  • Home
  • Why CommunityWire
  • How It Works
  • Services & Rates
✕

Dance school shuttered, kids lose out

22 April 2022
Categories
  • Arts and Entertainment
  • Education
  • English
  • Families, Parenting and Children
  • Finance and Business
  • Media Release
Tags
  • Canadian Union of Public Employees
https://cupe.ca/

FORT MCMURRAY, AB —/COMMUNITYWIRE/— The union representing employees at the MacDonald Island Dance Academy (MIDA) is speaking out about the closure of the school, saying it provides an important and growing service in the city.

Craig Milley, President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 1505 says information provided by MacDonald Island CEO Craig Walsh about the school is “concerning and inaccurate.” Milley says the program was profitable up until COVID hit in March 2020.

The union says a 2021/2022 Business Case projected the Academy to be profitable, and despite the dance season starting a month late in the 2021/2022 season, the overall revenue to date already exceeds last years revenue.

“There is no evidence to support the notion that there has been a steady decline in participation and/or registration of the program for several years pre-pandemic,” said Milley. “The numbers show that the program was profitable between 2014 and early 2020.”

The Union and Dance Instructors provided Mr. Walsh with a 12-page Alternate Business Case, which is in accordance with the Collective Agreement, that would increase the marketability of the MIDA program and ensure the sustainability of the program.

“He clearly didn’t want to hear it, he didn’t even meet with the dance instructors and I to review and hear what it was all about,” Milley said.

“It’s about the kids,” he said. “Some of these kids have been with the studio and the same instructors for 10 years. The kids are losing their studio and their instructors, the instructors are losing their jobs, and the community is losing a dance program that was profitable and could continue to be profitable.”

The union is calling for a formal investigation under the Municipal Government Act, of CEO Craig Walsh, for his misleading information and lack of compliance with the terms of the Collective Agreement.

“The public deserves the real story.”

-30-

For more information, please contact:

Craig Milley, President
CUPE Local 1505
587.646.4860

Share

Submit Your News

EVENTS CALENDAR

  • MEDIA ADVISORY: CUPE to hold a rally for Wood Buffalo municipal workers
    23 March 2023
  • MEDIA ADVISORY: CUPE to hold a rally for Wood Buffalo municipal workers
    22 March 2023
  • MEDIA ADVISORY: CUPE Alberta convention opens today in Fort McMurray
    22 March 2023

RECENT RELEASES

  • L’Indice de bonheur au travail d’ADP Canada : une nouvelle mesure mensuelle de la satisfaction de la main-d’œuvre canadienne
    29 March 2023
  • ADP Canada Happiness@Work Index Provides New Monthly Satisfaction Measure for the Canadian Workforce
    29 March 2023
  • Limestone Trustees to Debate Tri-Board Strike
    29 March 2023
  • Ford’s budget risks cutting 7,000 education workers across Ontario
    27 March 2023
  • De nouvelles ressources en littératie numérique visent à renseigner la population canadienne sur la fraude en ligne
    23 March 2023

CATEGORIES

Be seen where the audience is looking
News Media Canada
365 Bloor Street East, 3rd Floor
Toronto, Ontario MrW 3L4

416-923-3567 or toll-free 1-877-305-2262
content@newsmediacanada.ca

© Copyright 2023 News Media Canada. All rights reserved.