The province needs to revisit how it awards one of its lottery grants to cut out the amount of double-dipping by groups affiliated with municipalities, said St. Albert MLA Ken Allred.
The issue has been on Allred’s radar for months, prompting him to compile statistics showing that 54 per cent of funding from the Community Initiatives Program went to St. Albert or city-related groups in the last four years. The grants amounted to a total of $840,000 in that time, he said.
“I think we need to review the whole philosophy and the principles and the rules,” Allred said.
The program, known as CIP, provides matching dollars to community organizations and registered non-profits. Allred feels the money should be used for initiatives that come from grassroots organizations rather than those affiliated with the city, which gets provincial dollars from the Municipal Sustainability Initiative.
He’s seen the proliferation of ‘friends of’ societies forming in order to raise money to support facilities or programs that are related to the city, such as the Arden Theatre, for example.
He also doesn’t like how some groups will ask for a city grant before applying for the provincial grant so they’ll qualify for more matching dollars. The St. Albert Historical Society recently used this strategy to boost its CIP grant application.
“It just strikes me as being just a little bit funny that we’re using grants to top up, to get another grant,” Allred said.
The province ran out of money for its CIP grant program last year, leaving many requests unfilled. Meanwhile, the city’s community capital program grant saw less than $80,000 worth of applications for a $500,000 pool of money this year. This doesn’t sit well with Allred.
He recently expressed his views to the standing committee on public accounts. But so far the backbencher isn’t swaying Culture and Community Spirit Minister Lindsay Blackett.
“I don’t share the same concerns as him,” Blackett said.
“Without these ‘friends of’ societies we wouldn’t be able to operate these facilities and that would mean more government money would have to come out to operate them,” he said. “I always think it’s better to spend a portion to match some money that they’re already raising than to have to supply it all ourselves.”
Blackett is also not crying foul on the idea of using city money to ratchet up provincial grant applications. He feels the principle behind the grants is to fund initiatives that are supported by the community and having the city contribute is a good example of this support.
“They’re receiving matching funds which means they have to go out and raise money from individuals or corporate donors and I think that’s what it should be,” he said.
Mayor Nolan Crouse, on the other hand, didn’t disagree with Allred’s view.
“I don’t think you should be creating societies just for the purpose of finding ways to get money. Societies must be sustainable and functional as an organization,” he said.
Karen Lynch, executive director of Volunteer Alberta, suggested that Allred’s figures are a poor reference because the last two years came under a regime of reduced dollars following the dissolution of the Wild Rose Foundation.
“The reason people are applying is because there’s nowhere else to go,” she said.
