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“We are doing a reorganization. We’re going to be primarily focusing on conferences going forward,” said Whittaker, who was working out of the organization’s Beltline offices on Monday.

“We had our fingers in a whole lot of pies, but unfortunately we’re not going to be doing any of that anymore.

“We’ve determined our biggest value to the conservative movement is through networking and talking about best practices.”

The Manning Centre was founded in 2005, followed two years later by the Manning Foundation, which aimed to fund education focused on values of democracy.

Whittaker said as part of its streamlining efforts, the organization has reduced its permanent staff by half to three but is working with others on a contract basis. As for the for lease signs, Whittaker said the ground floor of the building was rarely used by the Manning Centre and is now up for lease by the landlord, while the second floor of the building will remain the group’s headquarters.

Photo by Darren Makowichuk/Postmedia

He added the websites are down due to changes to the centre’s servers, and it amounts to nothing more than “an ill-timed disruption.”

Before being elected last October, Calgary Coun. Jeromy Farkas got his start at the Manning Centre and was the driving force behind the group’s council tracker, which the rookie politician pitched as an intern.

He said with the Manning Centre scaling back from its advocacy role, there is a significant void that needs to be filled.

“I really valued the work that we did through the council tracker, tracking councillors’ votes, the time spent in secret, councillors’ attendance, stuff like that so I think that there’s a real big vacuum to be filled and I’m hoping that non-profits, advocacy groups will step in there,” Farkas said.