Just as ticket sales for Ballet B.C.’s presentation of the Moscow Classical Ballet’s Nutcracker were nearing 10,000—just 2,000 short of the 12,000 needed to remain afloat—the company discovered what it is calling “unauthorized activity” in its bank accounts.

At a news conference Friday afternoon (December 12), Ballet B.C. chair and president Graeme Barrit said that Scotiabank froze a company account and used its entire funds to pay off a Visa debt of $16,949.

Barrit claimed the bank’s actions were in violation of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, as the company had sought protection from its creditors and filed a Notice of Intention to File a Proposal under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act on December 2.

But Frank Switzer, spokesperson for Scotiabank, said the bank’s actions were taken under the “right of offset”.

“It’s a long-standing legal principle that is written up in credit-card agreements,” said Switzer. “It’s not something that the bank does lightly. It’s an unfortunate situation, but it’s a very straightforward transaction on a case like this.”

At the news conference, Barrit called on Scotiabank to return the funds, which represent about 20 percent of the company’s available cash.

But Switzer rejected Barrit’s plea. “They have filed a Notice of Intent and we just feel it’s not a viable solution,” he said.

Barrit said that the loss of the funds means the company could run out of cash before it is able to get funds from Ticketmaster resulting from the sale of Nutcracker tickets.

“The pool of cash that’s in Ticketmaster, that was allocated to retire the debt, and it’s still sitting there and we can’t access it until after the show,” he said. “The other cash, which is part of what they [Scotiabank] just used [to pay off the credit-card debt], is what we’re using to get from here to there....It could mean that the three or four people that we’ve been able to keep back on a contract to help us have to be laid off. It could mean that we can’t...have the dancers back in the studio by the beginning of January.”

Barrit said he is now calling on Vancouverites to continue their support for the company.

“We now need to sell $16,000 more of [Nutcracker] tickets to the city of Vancouver to make up for this,” he said.

Noting that he was delivering the press conference in the Scotiabank Dance Centre, he added, “The irony is significant.”