Richard Froese
South Peace News

A revamped grants policy to fund rural organizations has been finalized by Big Lakes County.
At its regular meeting March 28, council approved the new amalgamated grants policy that takes effect for the 2019 budget.
Operating grants will continue to be designated to hamlet organizations, rather than by wards, as decided by council at a previous meeting. The task force decided to keep the hamlet organizations since the evaluation formula for applications includes population, says grants officer M.J. Valiquette.
No current population figures by ward are available, she says, but that could be changed as ward figures are compiled.
“Not only do we think our proposed changes will help provide clarity for community organizations and groups applying, as well as helping our administration effectively implement our grants policy, we believe these changes can also help strengthen our local organizations’ current practices,” Valiquette says.
“The grant allocations made under the policy will continue to reflect council’s priorities.”
The policy consolidates the separate policies for events, sponsorship and in-kind donations; operating grants; capital grants and cemetery grants.
Events, sponsorship and in-kind donations support groups, events and activities that provide a recognizable benefit to the region, the policy states.
Applications will be considered on a first-come first-served based.
Regarding other grants, the application deadline is Oct. 31 for the following budget year.
Operating grants support local community organizations and will be evaluated on a scoring system based on a combination of population, facility and programming use.
Identified community organizations that receive annual grants are not eligible for events and sponsorship funding, although they will be eligible for in-kind donations.
Operating funds may also be allocated to local seniors societies for transportation and facilities,, and heritage and museum organizations.
Capital grants are allocated for land and buildings, facility construction, renovations and repairs, furnishings and equipment.
The county will not fund sports equipment that is not available for public use.
Cemetery grants provide support to registered cemeteries in the county boundaries for operations and maintenance.
Reeve Ken Matthews voted against the policy as proposed.
“My concern is that we’re dealing with volunteers and we’re putting all this in front of them,” Matthews says.
“It’s getting way too complicated.”
However, nobody agreed with him.
“It’s all pretty simple,” says Kinuso Councillor Ken Killeen who represented council on the task force with Prairie River – Salt Prairie Councillor Dave Marx and Enilda – Big Meadow Councillor Donald Bissell.
Valiquette notes much of the information required in the application form is also in the grant process for the provincial government.
The county has scheduled workshops for organizations to be oriented about the new policy and procedures.