Photo: Shaun Penner

By Shaun Penner

Community Group Funding

City of Grande Prairie finalizes 2021 community group funding grants

Jul 9, 2020 | 5:30 AM

Grande Prairie City Council has finalized its community group funding for 2021, following a Council Committee of the Whole meeting on Wednesday afternoon.

A motion was passed to proceed with funding levels recommended by City Administration for next year, with a few exceptions.

Mayor Bill Given says the overall theme he heard from council members as they discussed the finalized amounts was that there was, in general, support to maintain funding levels to community groups similar to those of 2020, while also trying to contain overall spending.

“The administrative recommendation does see a number of community groups receiving less funding than they received in 2020, but it is not the same for all of them. There are some that are receiving the exact same amount.” said Given. “But there are some that are receiving substantially less than they did receive in 2020.”

Given adds that though some organizations may be receiving less than they did this year, he does anticipate that some of these groups will be coming back before council to seek some financial aid to help with the impacts of COVID-19.

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On Tuesday, the City’s Community Services Committee passed a motion to have administration review resources and tools the City has available, to come up with a framework of how to assist community groups in need of extra funding due to COVID-19, specifically.

“That issue was also reflected in (Wednesday’s) discussions, and I think that council is expecting that we’ll hear more from community groups and community organizations.”

Council deviated from administrative recommendations for a few groups, including for the Grande Prairie Regional Sport Connection.

For the regional sport connection, a motion was passed for the funding level for next year to remain as it was for 2020 ($108,000) and not reduce that total by just over half, as recommended. Given says that decision came from what he perceived as a strong emphasis from council on supporting groups that “build capacity in the community”.

“The sport council is an excellent example of that, because it is a small group that helps build capacity for so many other sport groups in the City, that it really has a multiplying effect,” said Given. “A relatively small investment in the sport council has a very large impact in our community.”

Overall, to the naked eye, it may appear that overall funding levels for community groups will see a sharp decrease from 2020 levels. That steep drop, however, will come as council voted in favour of removing the Grande Prairie Public Library from being considered a “community group”, essentially moving it under its own label within the City budget.

In 2020, funding for the Grande Prairie Public Library Board accounted for 46 per cent of all operational funding for Community Groups at $1.65 million.

Though council did vote to maintain funding levels for the Library Board, Given says the consensus from council was that the library really didn’t belong in such a category.

“There was a majority of support for recognizing the library as being somewhat distinct from all of the other community groups, given the level of control the city has,” said Given. “We basically appoint a majority of the board members, and the recognition that the Library Board’s financial statements are one of only two organizations that are actually consolidated with the City’s financial statements.

“So, it really does have a special status.”

Overall, the Council Committee of the Whole voted to provide over $1.8 million in community group operational funds in 2021, a decrease of 2.8 per cent from 2020 levels.