St. Pat’s Family Centre is closing its doors Friday because they are facing dire financial straits, according to Brock Gallant.
The passionate father, and volunteer spokeperson said with $50,000 of debt, they couldn’t, in good conscience, open their doors next week without knowing they could pay their staff.
He says those who remain will continue to fight to keep the centre open in one form or another.
“Every parent that has given a dollar to the St. Pat’s Family Centre for a service that has not been delivered, will get that money back, everybody who is owed money by the St. Pat’s Family Centre will get that money back,” Gallant pledged. “Because we will not stop until they do.”
Gallant says this is a difficult decision, and he adds those who have been trying to keep the place open have been operating without insurance protection.
“The Board is completely exposed, these are parents and volunteers that have been fighting to keep this place open,” says Gallant. “They’ve been left a terrible situation and unfortunately things could go very, very wrong for lots of people who did nothing wrong.”
Gallant says they are not laying blame on anyone in particular, but says a forensic audit will be conducted in the future to determine exactly where things went wrong over the last few years.
He says they are working with local organizations to try to help parents left in the lurch by this abrupt closure.
“So it is scary, for all of us, but we are doing everything in our power to make sure that every dollar that needs to go somewhere, whether it’s to a parent or a vendor gets there,” says Gallant. “Whether that means bulldozing the building to the ground, and selling it off to pay everybody, that’s what it’s gonna be.”
He says ideally, they would like to be able to keep that property, either as their current site, or to develop it into something like a parking garage to ensure long term income for the Centre while they were located elsewhere.
