By Liam Verster

COVID-19 Financial Assistance

Framework for COVID-19 community group funding requests sought by Grande Prairie City Council

Jul 7, 2020 | 3:24 PM

The City of Grande Prairie has tasked administration with reviewing the available resources and tools the City has available, and come up with a plan to assist community groups in need of extra funding due to COVID-19 restrictions and closures.

City staff were directed to come back with this report, following a request for $20,000 by the Grande Prairie Live Theatre (GPLT).

Speaking to the City’s Community Services Committee on Tuesday, GPLT’s Manager, Wayne Ayling, says due to the restrictions and closures between March and May, the theatre lost $16,000 from cancellations.

“We lost 125 bookings of space between the two theatres that we manage. Thirty-nine of those bookings were money making events, like our last two plays, sold out concerts, almost sold out concerts, and other private events like education sessions where people were paying to do adult learning.”

He says they’re anticipating a $28,000 deficit, despite making some big cuts to their budget.

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“Our actual expenses last year were $545,000 and we cut that down to $425,000. We laid off all of our part time staff, so we’re down to only three staff.”

Ayling adds that shows put on at the KMSC Law Performing Arts Theatre in the St. John Paul II High School, which couldn’t be held during the pandemic lockdown, are completely supported by the Grande Prairie and District Catholic School Division, and allows GPLT to make money at no cost to the City.

The partnership between the GPLT and Grande Prairie Regional College, where the college puts on a musical every other year, was supposed to happen this year and bring in a lot of money for both the college and the theatre, but due to seating restrictions, they would be lucky to break even.

“For example, at Grande prairie Live Theatre, if two people buy tickets, our 161 seat capacity is reduced to 39 seats. At the KMSC Theatre, the capacity would be 100, and at the college theatre the capacity would be 100.”

Only four of their eight planned plays have been announced, and none of them are planned for before October. Ayling says, if they can get some extra funding to get them through to their Annual General Meeting at the end of September, then there may be less COVID-19 restrictions, and they can announce the shows with expanded seating.

Grande Prairie Live Theatre still plans on running it’s Rising Stars summer camps this year with help from federal funds. GPLT has been granted a Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy to cover 8 weeks of pay for the camp counsellors.

City Council took these notes into consideration, and Mayor Bill Given put forward a motion of having City Staff investigate the tools and resources available, and come back with a model for how to support groups seeking emergency funding.

Given says there are likely many more community groups who have felt an impact on their finances due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and will be approaching Council asking for some financial assistance.

“I want us to be in a position to be able to respond quickly and thoughtfully, and consistently. So that’s why I made the motion today to ask administration to come forward with some recommendations on what kind of system we might be able to put in place.”

He says he’s fully supportive of responding to these types of requests, but since he suspects other groups will be in similar situations, then having a model laid out in advance will allow action to be taken without having to really scrutinize each individual case, and instead respond quickly.

Given adds that Council will have to discuss the budget and try to strike a balance between ensuring services and supports are available, that the City does their part in helping the groups that provide them, while not overstepping into areas that should be handled by other levels of government.

“Municipalities have very limited resources, the Provincial and Federal Governments obviously have much larger treasuries and war chests that they could use to support these kinds of organizations. So, one thing I’ll be looking for, is for the City of Grande Prairie to ensure that we are filling gaps that are left unfilled by other orders of government, and not duplicating anything.”

The motion was passed unanimously, and Given says though no exact time line was set out, City Staff have been quick to respond to requests concerning the COVID-19 pandemic, and he expects the report to be done in a few weeks time.