Schedule of grants introduced at qathet Regional District meeting

qathet Regional District has introduced a schedule of grants to organizations in the first draft of the regional district’s five-year financial plan, 2021 to 2025.

At the December 16 finance committee meeting, manager of financial services Linda Greenan reviewed the proposed amounts to be given for grants in the coming year.

She said what she has heard from directors is there is some concern about them not being able to allocate as much as they wanted, so she had proposed some increases to the grant program.

She said if adopted in the budget, social planning would go from $77,000 in 2020 to $90,000 in 2021. Economic development would go from $86,691 in 2020 to $95,000 in 2021.

General grants in aid would go from 27,000 in 2020 to $30,000 in 2021.

In Electoral Area A, the allotment would go from $5,753 in 2020 to $13,000 in 2021. Greenan said in Area A, there is a significant surplus, so the increase would not be all funded from requisition.

Electoral Area B would go from $17,117 in 2020 to $22,150 in 2021.

Electoral Area C would go from $3,591 in 2020 to $10,000 in 2021. Greenan said there was a large surplus that could be carried over.

Greenan said in Electoral Area D, there were not a lot of grants in 2020, amounting to $2,102, but that might be due to COVID-19. She said the proposal was to go to $8,000, which was close to what was paid out in 2019.

Electoral Area E is proposed at $6,000 in 2021, up from $4,500 in 2020. Greenan said there was a surplus in Area E so the increase would not be coming all from taxation.

“I’d like you to think about that and let me know if you want those changed at all,” said Greenan to the directors.

Electoral Area C director Clay Brander made a motion to reduce the Area C grant-in-aid allotment from $10,000 to $6,000. The motion carried.

Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said he’d like to put forward a motion to see the proposed Area B grant of $22,150 in 2021 be reduced to $18,000.

Gisborne said if the Area B grant-in-aid was at $22,150, it would be the highest electoral area grant-in-aid available throughout any of the electoral areas.

He said the 2020 figure in the electoral area was at $17,117. He said $18,000 still allows Area B to contribute its fair share to economic development and still have a little bit left over.

“Going from $17,000 to $22,000 is a big jump and I think that would lead to more frustration from the taxpayers of Area B,” said Gisborne. “18,000 is a reasonable amount.”

Electoral Area D director Sandy McCormick said she appreciated where Gisborne was coming from, trying to keep taxes as low as possible, but she was concerned that next year, the regional board would be feeling a lot more pressure with the COVID-19 restart happening. She said there is only $400,000 in the COVID-19 grant from the province so she thinks there will be pressure on the economic development budget to fund and support projects.

“I’m concerned about reducing it,” said McCormick of Gisborne’s motion.

Gisborne said he was concerned that Area C’s grant will be $6,000 and Area B, if passed, will have $22,000 available. He said Area C has a greater population than area B.

“In talking with colleagues in other regional districts, there is a significant amount of concern for precedents we’ve been setting, taking money from an electoral area grant-in-aid without the consent of the director, and using it to fund other services they do not participate in,” said Gisborne. “If this board wishes to continue this path, it might not be allowed legislatively from the province.”

Gisborne’s motion to reduce the grant-in-aid was defeated.