CALGARY — One year after reporting a shortfall of $900,000, Pride Toronto (PT) is facing another cash shortage of $700,000 for its "pride parade" despite cutting its programs, reducing staff, and having new sponsors.Reported by CTV News, the organization is seeking money from the public, the feds, and corporations.“We have made some strategic decisions [for next year], we cut off a stage, we have reduced programming, we’ve made quite a few changes, but we’re still finding ourselves in a very similar position where we are in about $700,000 deficit,” Executive Director of PT Kojo Modeste stated. The call for more money also comes with a tight deadline — as the festival is scheduled to run from June 26 to 28, with the parade taking place Sunday..The organization has significant operating costs, including annual costs of $425,000 for security.PT added sponsors, but it claimed the additional money was offset by the companies that had stopped being sponsors.“When someone looks at our sponsor deck, they will see more sponsors added, but that did not add to more money,” stated Modeste.Some of the sponsors who were listed in the 2025 festival that later pulled out include Adidas, Google, Home Depot, Nissan, and Clorox..“I strongly believe that political pressure has a major role to play,” stated Modeste.Modeste claims, however, that government spending has remained stable.The feds reported earlier in June they would be spending $3 million to Fierté Canada Pride, a national umbrella organization, to "help Pride festivals strengthen safety and security measures across Canada."In the feds' 2025 budget, they announced a total of $54.6 million dispersed over five years for "2SLGBTQI+" programming..In an email to CTV News, the Ontario government confirmed “both Toronto Pride and Capital Pride have been approved for the maximum eligible funding available through Experience Ontario 2026.”“Since 2018, the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Gaming has supported pride organizations with over $4 million in direct funding across Ontario. This is in addition to sponsorship funding received by the organizations.""The Ministry continuously works with all partners, including Pride organizations such as Pride Toronto, to support community events across Ontario.”
