Last Friday -- The Cariboo RD Board gave $300 each from several Electoral Area Special Project Funds including Area 'D' for the Orange Shirt Day event in September. At that meeting - WL Mayor Kerry Cook stated that she felt WL Council would be prepared to provide its' $1500 towards 'Orange Shirt Day' in September
WL City Councillor SPS Rathor called me earlier this evening (I'm down in Coquitlam visiting my grandparents) and let me know that Council has refused to fund the $1,500 for Orange Shirt Day.
One of the reasons Councillor Rathor provided for the refusal was the lack of policy for the Council Contingency Fund. In fact, earlier today, I had a brief phone conversation about the lack of a policy for this Fund with local City Manager (CAO) Darryl Garceau and Mr. Garceau has agreed to review my concerns and bring something forward to Council for consideration
Some of my concerns included:
a) Use of this Fund to failed Grant-in-Aide (GIA) or Fee for Service applicants after submitting a previous GIA or Fee for Service application and having it rejected because it didn't meet GIA or Fee for Service Policy
b) Which projects should be authorized from the Fund -- emergency, non-profits and what would be the rules to fund either an emergency project or fund an emergency request from a non-profit?
I can only imagine when CRD Area 'F' Director Joan Sorley gets word of this (officially) - she won't be pleased and this will force the 'Orange Shirt Day' group to severely re-work their budget for their September events... but I hope the core elements will still be able to go forward...
-- SBF
3 comments:
Us volunteers of non-profits are all busy people. There are countless hours spent compiling the required grant info. I would ask the policy to not only address money distribution but to streamline this process! It is soooo time-consuming right now.
Unfortunately the number of these type of "days" and other causes looking for $$ is getting out of hand. They are all great causes, no denying that, but if Council was to give $1,500 to each, or even $500 it would quickly end up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. While I sympathize with the causes tax-payers have other stuff to pay for.
Orange Shirt Day, Pink Shirt Day, Relay for Life, Liver Walk, Big Bike, Terry Fox, Challenge Day, Paws for a Cause, ALS Walk, Diabetes Walk are just a few that come to mind that all look for $$$. All great, great causes but where does it stop?
Thanks Steve. As a director of a non-profit, it is confusing to submit GIA requests, thinking we've met all the criteria and then be rejected. I understand there is a finite amount of money and the accepted GIAs all are worthy organizations too, but I think it's time for some sort of (hopefully not complicated) policy to help guide the process of distributing these monies. Just my thoughts...!
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