OTTAWA - Toronto's 2010 Pride Week festival passed the test for federal stimulus funding before it got passed over.
Internal federal documents show organizers had jumped through all the necessary hoops to qualify for $630,000 in funding through the Marquee Tourism Events Program.
Bureaucrats wrote in a review last March that the festival satisfied all the eligibility requirements and objectives of the program, as it had when it landed $400,000 in 2009.
But Industry Minister Tony Clement ultimately announced two other events -- Luminato and the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair -- were the only funding recipients in Toronto.
Clement said at the time that the government simply had a limited amount of money to spread out among big Canadian cities and wanted to give a boost to up-and-coming festivals.
But Toronto Pride's executive director Tracey Sandilands says the fund was supposed to be based on the best return on investment.
