Toronto's Harbourfront Centre lays off more employees amid financial struggles

As various arts and cultural institutions in Toronto continue to cope with tight budgets and funding issues, more cuts are being made, this time in the form of staff.

The Harbourfront Centre has been forced to let an undisclosed number of employees go in recent days, saying in a brief statement over email on Friday "we are currently facing financial challenges, which necessitated the difficult decision to let some employees go."

"We do not publicly discuss personnel decisions," the hub continued in response to a reader tip that blogTO received about the layoffs last week.

"Harbourfront Centre just fired the entire operations and grounds team to bring in a cheaper external service. Some of these people have been working there for over 30 years," wrote the anonymous resident, who also made it clear that they considered the move "disgusting and unethical."

The centre has not yet confirmed any further details, such as what department the former workers were a part of or how many people were impacted at the time of publication.

According to coverage of the non-profit's fiscal problems earlier this year, it has made programming, staffing and all around spending changes to cope with an operating model that the federal government said in a report is "not yet sustainable."

The attempts at radically reducing expenses can be seen in the closure of what was Toronto's most scenic skating rink on the waterfront property, the end of Harbourfront's busker program, and cuts to maintenance of amenities like the Amsterdam bridge, which has been closed to the public for years.

The centre just celebrated its 50th anniversary earlier this month as its present remains rocky and its future, uncertain. Meanwhile, organizations like Hot Docs are experiencing similar woes, having temporarily shuttered its Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema last month.