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B.C.'s financially stretched arts industry will focus on building its relationship with the new minister of tourism, culture and the arts, Western Canada Theatre general manager Lori Marchand said Wednesday.

Recently appointed to the B.C. Arts Council board, Marchand was asked to comment on the departure of MLA Kevin Krueger after a controversial 18 months heading the ministry.

Krueger was appointed to the arts and culture post just as the provincial government reacted to the recession with hardnosed fiscal measures. Gaming funds were diverted to general revenue, meaning a loss of arts grants, and critical arts funding funnelled through the BCAC was slashed, amounting to a double whammy.

"He was certainly the face for very many unpopular announcements," Marchand said.

Krueger also got into a spat with the Alliance for Arts and Culture this summer after he said the group threatened him during a meeting unless he loosened the purse strings. The group fired back that he had opened the meeting by asking them to stand down from their advocacy efforts.

"It would be very helpful if Mr. Krueger could moderate his comments in the future," Amir Alibhai, the alliance's executive director, said at the time.

Krueger was appointed head of income assistance and mental health services Monday in a cabinet shuffle.

It would be unfair to saddle him with responsibility for the cuts, Marchand noted. She called the timing of his reappointment "a little sad" because he had succeeded in re-allocating $7 million in funding to the B.C. Arts Council.

"I feel badly for Kevin in that he was left covering the bad news."

His successor, Surrey MLA Stephanie Cadieux, is a past board member for Realwheels, the theatre company that brought the play Skydive to Kamloops last season. That suggests she has some appreciation for how arts organizations operate, Marchand said.