Source : National Post

'Great investment,' Premier says

Government officials yesterday defended spending close to $1-million to bring NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien show to Toronto, after the move was criticized as a waste of money by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

"Given the media coverage that we're going to get and the viewing audience, given the fact they're going to provide some great exposure to some Canadian talent, I think it's a great investment," Dalton McGuinty, the Premier, told reporters.

The Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Recreation is pitching in $500,000 -- from the $138-million Tourism and Economic Recovery Fund established by the previous government at the height of last year's SARS crisis -- to pay for part of the costs incurred by Late Night with Conan O'Brien to relocate to Toronto for a week of shows at the beginning of February. Toront03, a non-profit organization funded mostly by an Industry Canada grant that was awarded last June, will ante up an additional $400,000. Private sponsorships by companies such as Labatt and Jetsgo will cover the rest of the costs.

Wayne Beaton, a spokesman for the Ministry of Tourism, said half a million dollars was a bargain for five hours of Toronto promotion on U.S. network television. "For the price of $500,000, we are getting exposure in front of 20 million American viewers," Mr. Beaton said. "This makes great business sense from the Ministry's perspective."

According to Nielsen Media Research, Conan O'Brien remains the highest-rated show in its 12:35 a.m. time slot this season with about 2.6 million viewers tuning in each night. A 30-second advertisement on the show sells for approximately US$50,000.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation reiterated the cash could be better spent elsewhere. "It's absolutely inappropriate to use taxpayers' dollars in this way, " said Bruce Winchester, research director for the non-profit government watchdog.

"We have a Premier who's got a $5.6-billion budget deficit to deal with and we learn that we've got a million dollars to bring Conan O'Brien to town... A million here, a million there. We know how you get a $5.6-billion deficit when that's going on."

Peter Soumalias, founder of Canada's Walk of Fame and the organizer of the project to bring the U.S. talk show to Toronto, was surprised at the criticism. "Nobody went after the taxpayers looking for any kind of a handout... We accessed existing [SARS recovery] funds, as have dozen of other organizations," he said, adding all sources of funding were made public at the news conference organizers held last month in which it was announced the show would be broadcasting from Toronto.

Mr. Soumalias said the $1-million coming from government coffers was being spent entirely on local companies for things such as facilities, set design, props and editing equipment.

"Just because SARS is not on the front pages does not mean that the problem has gone away. The tourism industry in Toronto is still precarious," he said.

Tourism Toronto, a non-profit industry organization, estimates tourism expenditures declined by $600-million in Toronto and $1.07-billion across Canada last year, mainly as a result of bad publicity from the SARS outbreak.

A spokesman for Late Night with Conan O'Brien declined comment. "The show is on hiatus this week and the network's not commenting on this story," he wrote in an e-mail.

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