2017 was a tumultuous year for the Moose Jaw Cultural Centre that thrust the local facility into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, leaving them with a $70,000 deficit.

It started early in the year after the board fired their first and only general manager. The news came as a shock to many in the community but an even bigger upheaval came as they fired their new general manager just months after he started the job. There were a lot of questions in the community about hiring a person from Prince Albert who already had a job in that city that he intended to keep.

Board Chair Colleen Patterson says it was with the best intentions in mind but it didn't work out. "I take a lot of the responsibility for the second general manager."

"He led us to believe that he was going to move to Moose Jaw and be here, but I don't think he had any intentions of it and he was going between two places. You can't run that Cultural Centre by being there maybe, two weeks of the month."

As a result, Patterson ended up being the on site leader for the day to day operations, leading the board to make the decision to part ways with their second GM of the year. Between the severance packages for the two and some purchases that were made but never realized in the books, the Cultural Centre finished 2017 $70,000 in the hole.

Patterson says they'll cover that with some reserves and feels there' in a much better place now, because the adversity has forced them to try harder.

"We really want to try to do a better job of letting people know what is available at the Moose Jaw Cultural Centre and the Mae Wilson Theatre. They can be rented for a day, a week or a month and we are also working on rebranding."

Not wanting to go into to many details about that process, Patterson says with 2017 in the rear view mirror they can focus on making the local facility better and more active.