WESTLOCK – Westlock County councillors have approved the first round of the municipality community grants, with $9,450 heading towards a pair of community groups, two service clubs and the ag society.
At their June 27 meeting, councillors voted 6-1 (deputy reeve Ray Marquette was opposed) to approve the community grant advisory committee’s spring 2023 recommendations, a group that includes councillors Stuart Fox-Robinson, Jared Stitsen and Francis Cloutier, along with finance manager Faraja Amanda, who chairs the group, and finance director Peggy Hardinge.
The committee met June 13 to go over the six applications that were received and ultimately recommended all but one — a $500 grant to the Westlock Rotary Club for its golf tournament and a $100 donation to the Knights of Columbus golf tourney were approved by administration under the “small funding” category of the program and did not require council approval.
For the larger grants, $3,990 is headed to the Busby Community Council for grounds maintenance under the “operating” category, while the Jarvie Community Council received $4,500 via a similar request. The Westlock Ag Society will also get $1,000 under the “community event” category to go towards the annual ag fair. The Canadian Tractor Museum’s $5,000 ask to fund an “outdoor display” under the “capital” category was not recommended by the committee and council did not add it to the approved list.
Reeve Christine Wiese noting this was their first time “getting into the groove” on the program said she’d like the list presented to council cleaned up a bit as it included the unapproved tractor museum project which “was a little confusing.”
Marquette, who ultimately voted against the request, asked during discussions whether the county had been charged to rent the halls in Busby and Jarvie for their recent open houses. When told they were, Marquette asked: “So, we paid the rent on the halls to have the open houses and now we’re paying again? Just for clarification … that answered my question.”
The policy
County councillors approved the new community grants policy back in mid-March , with administration saying it should allow more groups to “easily access” the roughly $100,000-plus in funds remaining for this year.
The 10-page Policy 7300-001 - Community, Facility, Recreation, and Tourism Grant Program, replaced policy 6.15, that had previously been in place and “needed an update” — the document was also in front of councillors at their Feb. 21 committee of the whole meeting (COW) where after 30-plus minutes of debate they directed administration to make additional changes to the amounts, allocations, and number of categories.
Ultimately, the program is meant to “provide occasional grant funding” to county groups to “assist in developing and enhancing community facilities and events, sport, and tourism programing.”
In that briefing to councillors, community services coordinator Adrienne Finnegan noted the number of categories in the final draft was reduced from 12 to 10, three of which administration will be responsible for based on the dollar amounts. Grant funding categories include development incentive, community event incentive, major community/tourism event, equipment, leadership, gravel, project, capital, operating and small funding. Funding starts at $200 and goes up to $10,000 while the ‘small funding grant’ specifically notes a “condensed application process” for requests under $500.
For the most part, applicants must either be an “individual endorsed by” a registered non-profit society or organization within the county, the group itself, an organizing committee under the auspices of an affiliate or sponsoring not-for-profit society, while ‘regional teams’ may be considered for dollars. Applicants from outside the county will be considered for the development incentive, community event incentive and major community/tourism event grants as “administration felt that these would possibly be the grant opportunities being applied for by organizations located outside county boundaries.”
Groups, successful or not, will be contacted within 60 days of the closing of the quarterly grant windows which are slated annually for the last Fridays in March, May, August, and September.
How much is available?
Annually during the fall budget process, council will decide the maximum amount available for and in a past e-mail, CAO Tony Kulbisky said for 2023, $165,000 has been allocated while $45,250 in grants, before then recent approval of $9,490, has been approved — an addition $19,482 has also been earmarked for a Jarvie project that includes Community Facility Enhancement Program dollars.
The policy notes that council can “decide not to allocate the total funds available to the grants” for that year and “if all funds are not allocated, council shall determine during the budget process at the end of the year whether to restrict the funds or allow them to enter general surplus.”
Council also has the discretion to provide “additional funding” for any of the grants over what was originally budgeted, while the grant advisory committee shall endeavor to recommend disbursement of “not more than 25 per cent of allocated annual grant funds during each calendar quarter” — if they do, they’ll have to tell council why.
Council also “reserves the right” to direct the advisory committee to portion the grant dollars available between the grants in a particular way depending on the priorities of council.
While organizations seeking funding from multiple sources shall be “considered favorably” the grants are handed out using 10 criteria that include: new initiatives, program quality, community need, services and supplies, financial need, target audience and membership, quantity, and quality of impact on the community, availability of grant funds and an executed application form.
