Parks Canada has agreed to give the national historic site up to $425,000 to return the building's exterior to its original grandeur over the next two years, completing a heritage project that began with an interior restoration in 1992, said Jack Harper, chairman of the non-profit venue's board.

Instead, the theatre's original facade will be uncovered and restored, along with the entrance to the building. "We'll be able to get the building to look a lot like the way it looked in 1907, with a new marquee and canopy," Harper said.

Both grants would not have been possible if the Burton Cummings Theatre had not eliminated its debt, Harper said. The theatre got rid of its red ink in 2007, when the venue's remaining creditors walked away from the mortgage in exchange for a triangle-shaped surface lot next to the theatre and a $220,000 city debt-retirement grant.