City of Powell River Council will consider sending a grant application to develop a poverty reduction plan.
Meriko Kubota, regional social planner, appeared before the Tuesday, January 14, committee of the whole meeting to outline the plan. She said she was appearing before the committee to put forward a grant application to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) for a poverty reduction plan.
“Many of you may have heard about this announcement during your attendance at UBCM in the fall when it was announced,” said Kubota. “It’s a new opportunity to apply to the province for us as a municipality to get some funds to help us with creating a poverty reduction plan.”
Kubota said there are two streams for the grant application. One is to create a plan and the second is to implement a project.
“We’re not ready for the latter but we are ready for the first,” said Kubota.
She said the councillors may recall, when she provided an overview of social planning, that some early work was done through a partnership with First Credit Union and the PREP Society, which is now called LIFT Community Services, to strike a poverty reduction advisory committee.
“There have been a number of meetings and discussions about how we can create a poverty reduction plan for our region,” said Kubota.
She said the city has joined the Tamarack Institute out of Kitchener-Waterloo in Ontario. The institute is a network of cities reducing poverty across Canada and provides a good model and process for cities on how to come up with poverty reduction plans, she added.
“As a member, we are able to gain all of their resources to help us do that,” said Kubota. “With the UBCM funding, we’ll have the funding and the resources to actually work toward developing that plan.
“This is an opportunity for us to do a regional application. This would be in partnership with the qathet Regional District. We would qualify for $25,000 for the city and another $25,000 from the regional district.”
She said this would allow for social planning at a regional level.
The application is ready to go, pending one more letter of support. Kubota said she was bringing a resolution before the committee of the whole so the resolution could be submitted as part of the application to UBCM.
The resolution reads: that council authorizes the City of Powell River to be the primary applicant to apply for, receive and manage $50,000 in combined grant funding to complete a regional poverty reduction plan in partnership with the qathet Regional District.
Mayor Dave Formosa asked when it was anticipated that the funds would be awarded. Kubota said the process usually takes two months. Deadline for the application is February 28, 2020. She said she anticipates she will hear about the application on May 1 at the earliest.
Councillor Jim Palm asked if, in the grant application, the city has to specify how the funds will be expended.
Kubota said there are specific criteria the city is allowed to spend the money on. Items such as consulting fees, community engagement and administration are allowable.
Councillor George Doubt said what he understands is occurring is the city is applying for funding in partnership with the regional district for a poverty reduction plan.
“Poverty reduction is a good goal,” said Doubt. “This is a step we’ve got to take toward what we really want to do, which is poverty reduction action.”
He said the city was looking at a poverty reduction plan, which is good, as well as topics such as transportation, seniors and how they can merge into better activities in the community, affordable housing, and local foods.
“I’d like to get the planning done,” said Doubt.
The item will go to City of Powell River Council for consideration of whether to submit the grant application.
