Disagreement over handling of harassment report led to Banff Centre board dismissal
CBC
Internal disagreement over how to deal with a report concluding the board chair of the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity harassed an executive ultimately resulted in the Alberta government firing all board directors and installing a single administrator to oversee the nationally cherished cultural institute, CBC News has learned.
Advanced Education Minister Rajan Sawhney announced the dramatic move in a news release late Thursday afternoon, without disclosing any reasons.
However, tensions have embroiled the Banff Centre's board since late last year, when then-CEO Janice Price filed a workplace harassment complaint against chair Adam Waterous, sources familiar with the matter say.
CBC has agreed not to name these sources as they are not authorized to speak publicly about confidential matters.
Following an independent investigation of the Price complaint earlier this year, a majority of directors wanted the provincial government, which oversees the centre, to remove Waterous from the board.
That didn't happen. Instead, sources say those tensions reached the point that, on Thursday, Sawhney decided to dismiss all 10 board directors, replacing them with an oil executive and veteran cultural facility director to become Banff Centre's temporary one-man board.
She assigned Paul Baay to "review internal processes and policies at the Banff Centre and take on the responsibilities of the board of governors until a new chair and board can be appointed," the government announcement stated.
This is the latest in a lengthy stretch of turmoil for a centre that's revered internationally for its arts festivals and cultural training programs, spanning from film and theatre to classical music and literature.
After relative stability and growth for much of its 90-year existence, the centre has had four different CEOs in the last 12 years, including one who lasted only two years.
The COVID-19 pandemic financially walloped the institution and its lucrative conference-hosting business, leading Banff Centre to lay off hundreds of employees.
Price was winding down her eight-year tenure as Banff Centre's CEO when multiple sources say the veteran arts executive filed her human resources complaint against Waterous. He heads an oil and gas investment firm and is a principal of a proposed train line between Banff and Calgary.
The allegations of harassment stemmed from conversations the two leaders had about the appropriate levels of input Price could provide into the board's ongoing search for her successor. She alleged his cautions on this amounted to harassment.
A third-party investigation Banff Centre conducted into this found that Waterous's interactions with Price did constitute harassment, the sources say. The CBC has not seen a copy of the investigator's report.
Waterous told CBC News he also made his own allegations of harassment against Price — that "the CEO made the harassment allegation in bad faith" regarding his protests that she was improperly intervening in a new CEO search, "and that her allegation constituted harassment."
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