The Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba is trying to find ways of dealing with a $127,000 budget shortfall from 2017.

The Provincial Ex is responsible for shows in Brandon like the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair and the Summer Fair.

Provincial-Ex GM Ron Kristjansson

“It wasn’t a banner year for us and we knew this was coming,” said GM Ron Kristjansson.

The shortfall more than triples the $34,000 deficit in 2016 and far outpaces the $49,000 loss in 2015. The last operating surplus of $173,500 was reported in 2014.

The shortfall is being blamed on increased expenses, fewer people attending some of the events and what Kristjansson calls some unusual, sizable expenses that went onto the books in 2017. “Some of the expenses had been carried over for a couple of years such as working towards restoring the Dome Building and getting ourselves into that building to continue moving forward and working hard to improve our revenue streams.”

Sponsorship plays a big part in supporting the group’s bottom line and Kristjansson says they’ve had a few shifts but there are some real strengths with sponsorship moving forward.

“We are looking obviously at every place where we can hold the line on expenses and everything we can do to generate more revenue with our events. We are charging ahead with the Winter Fair and we have a great line up of entertainment and a good line up of exhibitors coming.”

For the first time in five years, the Winter Fair registered less than $300,000 in profit, at $295,600 in 2017. In previous years, profits ranged from $310,000 to $352,000.

Manitoba Ag Ex went from a $22,536 profit in 2016 to a $24,612 shortfall. The Manitoba Summer Fair turned a profit of $26,300.

While the Provincial Exhibition looks for ways to improve the bottom line Kristjansson doesn’t think it will have any impact on the upcoming Royal Manitoba Winter Fair.

“Negative news is never good but we do know the Winter Fair is one of the highlights of the season for Western Manitoba. Entries are coming in strong and we are moving forward to put on another great event” said Kristjansson.