Christmas came early for some Prince Rupert community groups on Monday night, as the City of Prince Rupert outlined its allocation of grant monies to a number of local groups and organizations.
With the economic situation in Prince Rupert still a challenging prospect, the City reduced a number of those grants this year, eventually deciding to provide $1,540,600 in grant allocations, having cut back some $240,000 from the original requests of $1,781,870.
Major grant allocations totalled $1,447,850, while the minor grant allocation totals came in at $92,450.
Despite reductions in some categories this year, a cross section of activities and organizations were still provided with the financial incentive to make plans for the year to come.
Among the more successful of applicants this year were the Special Events Society and Halloween Fest organizers which both received approval, and in fact were recipients of increased amounts on their grant requests to provide for the popular community celebrations.
There were some newcomers to the request line this year as the Career Resource Centre and Salmonberry Trading Company Society both saw 500 dollars in funding provided, while the Association for Francophones of the NorthWest received 1,000 dollars for its Sugar Shack Festival plans.
And while City Council made like Santa by making their lists and checking them twice, providing some groups with close to what they had hoped to for 2011, others no doubt were left feeling as though the Grinch had paid them a visit.
A request for funding by the Kaien Anti Poverty Society for a watering project for their community was turned down, as was the Prince Rupert Marine Rescue Society which saw its request for 50,000 dollars rejected, though they were pointed in the direction of Regional District for possible funding options.
The city also advised that next year council would be seeking more information from those seeking civic funding for their activities, looking to see if those groups were pursuing new sources of funding, using volunteers to their benefit and were looking at new and innovative ideas for providing their services and operating their affairs.
Prior to their decisions, city council was provided with an information package from city staff, which outlined the requests and provided a financial review of the anticipated requests, you can view that information from the city's agenda items pages 10 -16
With that breakdown of the numbers in hand, council provided for their decisions on the grant allocations, the numbers of which can be found below:
Prince Rupert Library $509,000 including benefit accrual of $9,000
Museum of Northern BC ($192, 859 Mortgage Grant, $117,000 Operating grant, $70,000 Visitors information Centre, $14,500 Kwinitsa Station Museum)
Tourism Prince Rupert ($90,000 Operating grant with provision to repay $25,000 over three years for overpayment of hotel tax in 2009, $12,000 Rent, $160,000 Hotel Tax Transfer)
Lester Centre of the Arts $110,000
Prince Rupert and Port Edward Economic Development Commission $87,500
Prince Rupert Golf Course Society $85,000 Operating Grant to cover superintendent wages and benefits, Golf course capital equipment fund of $40,000 to be transferred to City reserve fund.
Civic Pride $1,500
Growing Space Society $,1500
Halloween Fest $6,000
National Aboriginal Day $2,200
Navy League of Canada $2,250
Prince Rupert Racquet Society $8,500
Prince Rupert Community Arts Council $10,000
Prince Rupert Special Events Society $10,000 in kind Civic Centre, $20,000 Operating Grant
BC SPCA $17,400
Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre $6,000
Association of Francophone of the Northwest $1,000
Career Resource Centre $500
Salmonberry Trading Society $500
Late Applicants provision $5,000
The Northern View had a complete review of Monday nights deliberations (see article here)
While Sahar Nassimdoost from CFTK TV 7 News provided this report for the TV7 evening news (see video here)
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