By Curtis Galbraith

City Hall

Council puts off approval of some community group funding requests

Jun 14, 2021 | 7:48 PM

Grande Prairie City Council has put off final approval of several funding requests from community groups.

That includes a long list of operational grant requests totaling around $3.9 million for both 2022 and 2023, plus a $40,000 capital funding request from the Grande Prairie Art Gallery for 2022, and a $30,000 request from the Prairie Gallery Society for 2022 exhibitions.

These will come back to a future council meeting.

Mayor Jackie Clayton says council wanted more discussion on some things.

“The overall amount that is being funded to community groups was a discussion, specifically, there are many groups that are serviced through our community group funding,” said Clayton.

“(At) our Committee of the Whole meeting last week, there was a lot of discussion around various organizations, whether or not you take administration’s recommendation which was a slight decrease in funding for community groups overall.”

Clayton says council is still debating whether to support the decisions made at that Committee of the Whole meeting or follow administration’s recommendations.

“Any non-profit organization that is in a status that they really needed support; we still have our Emergency Group Funding. This was just, going forward, what this support would look like from council, their regular operational support.”

Council did approve $50,000 for both 2022 and 2023 for STARS to put towards its new helicopter, $10,000 in operational money for the Peace Wapiti Speed Skating Club from the Arctic Winter Games Legacy Fund, and a cap of $14,999 on Enhancement Funding starting in 2023.

Clayton says STARS asked to have its request of $250,000 per year over five years dealt with before fall budget talks.

“The Grande Prairie base will receive the new H145 helicopter this fall and the pilot and mechanic training was to commence in October of 2021, so it was important for STARS to know that the city also supported this program.”

The Grande Prairie Art Gallery had also asked for its $40,000 request to be dealt with before fall. Council did agree to refer some capital funding requests to this fall’s budget deliberations.

These include a $150,158 capital request from the South Peace Regional Archives for 2023 for its relocation to Centre 2000, $122,875 in each of the next two years for Nitehawk, and $15,000 in 2022 for the Grande Prairie Pickleball Club.