WESTLOCK – Westlock County’s community grant program will be back in front of council this fall to further discuss requested changes and decide on how to move forward with the program.
Administration will present council with several amendments regarding the timing of payments, eligibility criteria, and funding levels available for different categories. At their June 28 regular council meeting, council accepted a request for decision as information and requested to bring the matter back, along with any amendments, to the October governance and priorities committee meeting
Community services coordinator Adrienne Finnegan presented details of community grant program to council and provided background information on how the program operated in the past, additions and changes made in recent years and issues around timing for local community groups.
The deadline for community grant program applications every year is Sept. 15, noted Finnegan, pointing out applicants currently submit their information in September, are pre-approved during budget deliberations in December, and are not formally approved until later in the spring during the budget process. In a follow-up e-mail, she added that since the recommendations will be presented after the September deadline for the 2023 budget, any changes made to the policy will have an impact on the 2024 Community Grants Program.
Concerns have been raised from applicants and recipients that the “timeframe from conditional approval to formal budget approval and receipt of funds is lengthy” said Finnegan, noting there are just two council meetings this summer — one in July and one in August before the September deadline for 2023 applications.
“Having said that, if budget doesn’t get passed until April or sometimes early May, funds sometimes aren’t received by these community groups until middle of June, which then only allows them July and August to complete the project for that coming year before they have to complete a completion package and submit it with potentially a new application that they need to submit to us in September,” explained Finnegan.
She told council that “If they’re waiting for funds to be received in June that doesn’t give them a whole lot of time to complete the project, depending on what that might be, over the course of the summer.” Many of them are projects that need to be completed with available funds through the program in order to complete the package required, in addition to the application (for grant money in the next calendar year).
The interim budget approval passes a 50 per cent operating budget in December, while council previously discussed the potential to provide successful applicants with a payment schedule offering recipients 50 per cent of their grant approval amount in early January and the other 50 per cent when the formal budget is passed the following spring. There was also consideration of an operating grant of up to 50 per cent of the previous year’s utilities (gas, power, water), noted Finnegan.
The program was previously split into several grants and policies. Capital and project grants were offered as they are now with applicants of a capital grant needing to have 50 per cent of the asking amount in cash reserves, while those applying for a project grant had to have 25 per cent in cash reserves to input into the project. Gravel grant funding was added in 2018 and operational funding in 2019. Over the years requirements were amended, and the policy was consolidated and re-written in 2019 and amended again in 2021.
In their discussions, Coun. Stuart Fox-Robinson noted while changes may be needed, he doesn’t think a “round of changes to this policy is beneficial either to the municipality or the people who receive it”.
“I think let’s think it through, let’s bring it back to GPC (governance and priorities committee meeting),” he said, while Coun. Jared Stitsen pointed out the timeframe between when a group receives the money and the notification of pre-approval.
“They ‘re notified in January but they aren’t approved till around budget, but that does a lot for them. It sets them in motion for getting things in order for when spring comes,” said Stitsen.
Reeve Christine Wiese said she wants to see some changes and pointed out how the process is not working sufficiently for community groups.
“My suggestion is that we keep with September being our deadline, I like that part of it being that most times when communities are working on projects, they’re doing it spring and summer so that gives them enough time to complete it,” she said. “I would like to get an average of what in the last four years, was the total amount that we were doing for community grants and then take that average and make a grant reserve so we actually have the reserve money set aside a year before it’s actually being applied for,” she added. “In December when we’re approving 50 per cent, we would just be using our reserve.
She said despite an initial setback, they are doing this to help the local community.
“We would actually be using money from the previous year to fund them for that (current) year. We would have the money set aside — so this year we would actually be funding for 2024,” said Wiese. “It’s not working and we do need to acknowledge that it’s not working for our communities, I’ve heard it as well,” she added. “It’s not a fast enough turnaround for them to be getting the money, using it and then also getting their package showing that they’ve used the money, completed. And then they have to also fill out another package if they have another thing coming up.”
