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Flanked by Mayor John Tory and Toronto police chief Mark Saunders, Pride executive director Olivia Nuamah announced in mid-October that due to “increased cooperation and collaborative action” between the police and Pride, the cops would be invited to march again in the 2019 parade.

At the time, I predicted it had nothing to do with healing, safe spaces, dialogue and all the other mumbo-jumbo Nuamah offered that day.

No, it was all about the money.

The statements say Pride will have to obtain new grants, increase funding on existing grants and private sponsorships, as well as cut operating costs and increase event revenues to continue to operate as a going concern.

According to the auditors, that will include reducing the number of Pride festival stages from 14 to three and upping the number of events from four to 10.

I posed four questions to Nuamah Wednesday about Pride’s future and how they plan to stave off insolvency.

She replied with a flat “no comment.”

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Still if history repeats itself, it could be a tough, uphill battle to get Pride back into the black — barring any more special handouts from various levels of government.

In late November — just as the ink was drying on the audited statements — federal finance minister Bill Morneau said Pride Toronto would be getting $450,000 (over a few years) from the feds to create an initiative that would increase the safety of LGBTQ2 communities.

Besides a shameless vote-buying exercise, I suspect this was merely an excuse to prop up Pride’s fiscal fortunes under the guise of a legitimate project.