Eighteen local organizations will receive grants from the City of Courtenay, as approved by council Jan. 21.
Staff recommended a $15,000 cap on each application to remain within a sustainable amount, and to maximize the number of groups that benefit from the City’s grant-in-aid program.
A total of $110,650 was granted to the 18 groups. Last year, $84,000 was granted to 14 organizations.
Gaming revenue is the source of funding for the requests — which ranged from $1,000 to $53,200 — for various reasons, from furniture purchases to supportive housing assistance.
The beneficiaries include the Multicultural & Immigrant Support Society ($3,800), CV Arts ($15,000), CV Pipe Band Society ($1,000), Downtown Courtenay Business Improvement Association ($15,000), Western Canada Pulp and Paper Curling Bonspiel ($2,000), Alberni Project Society ($3,500), CV Land Trust ($8,000), CV Nature ($3,000), Morrison Creek Streamkeepers ($2,550), Youth and Ecological Restoration Program ($2,000), Project Watershed ($2,500), CV Cycling Coalition ($2,800), Indigenous Women’s Sharing Society ($5,000), LUSH Valley Food Action Society ($8,000), John Howard Society ($7,500), Habitat for Humanity ($15,000), and the CV Transition Society ($6,000 to cover remaining 60 per cent of 2019 property tax, and $8,000 on behalf of the CV Coalition to End Homelessness).
There were 21 applicants in total. The successful 18 met at least two of the following criteria:
1. Will the grant benefit the entire community?
2. Will the grant be the only financial or in-kind support requested from the City?
3. Did the organization apply for other sources of funding?
4. Is the organization financially sustainable?
The list of grant applicants lengthens each year. The City received one request in 2012, and 21 requests this year and in 2018. Staff spent at least 50 hours this year processing applications. As such, one of the options presented to council was to discontinue the grant-in-aid program.
“The amount of administrative work that goes into this is fairly considerable,” CAO David Allen said.
“People do rely on these (grants), and we do send the message to the community that we want to support them and that we want to leverage this money with their abilities to do work we think is valuable,” Coun. David Frisch said. “If we are going to change this policy, I think we need to deal with it sooner than later.”
Couns. Doug Hillian and Wendy Morin excused themselves from the discussion due to conflicts of interest.
The permissive property tax exemption is similar to the grant-in-aid program. Low-cost property leases are another way the City supports non-profit organizations.