qathet Regional District’s finance committee has made recommendations for grants-in-aid in 2024. At the March 6 finance committee meeting, directors were provided recommendations for the budgets for the five electoral areas.
Electoral Area E director and committee chair Andrew Fall made a recommendation for a $84,321.10 grant-in-aid for Electoral Area A, $27,902 for Electoral Area B, $38,094.10 for Electoral Area C, $28,455.80 for Electoral Area D and $11,227 for Electoral Area E.
General grants-in-aid for $96,000 had been previously approved by the regional board.
“What it would do is keep our grants at exactly the same level as last year, keeps the funding sources at exactly the same level as last year, would allow us to support groups at the same level as last year, and it would help us set the stage for moving forward with the revised way we are doing grants-in-aid,” said Fall. “The principle is all the grants in aid are set based on 2023 pools. That helps us get through the confusion of changes and lets us go forward.”
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne asked to deal with the grants-in-aid budget for his electoral area separately from the other grants.
The finance committee voted in favour of the allocations to Electoral Areas A, C, D and E going to the regional board for approval.
When the discussion came around to the Electoral Area B grant-in-aid budget, a motion was on the floor to set the budget as $27,902. However, Gisborne made an amendment to strike out the $27,902 and insert $16,000 in its place.
He said his recommendation brought the grant-in-aid budget closer in alignment with historical trends in Electoral Area B.
“It would be more defensible to my constituents out in Area B,” said Gisborne. “The value of $16,000 is a reasonable amount. It is higher than it has been historically but it does bring forward balance.”
Electoral Area C director and board chair Clay Brander said he liked the $27,902 figure and would vote against the $16,000. Fall made an amendment to strike out $16,000 and insert $20,000 in its place.
Gisborne said if the other electoral areas were concerned they were going to have to pay to make up the difference from a reduced Area B contribution for grant requests that are regional in nature, they should consider reducing their electoral area grants-in-aid, or have the board increase the general grant-in-aid. He said he wanted to thank Fall for putting forward $20,000 for Area B and he added that he was comfortable with the increased figure.
The motion for $20,000 for Electoral Area A, as amended, carried unanimously.
The committee then carried a motion that the grants-in-aid allocations be incorporated into the 2024 to 2028 financial plan, and that the 2024 financial plan be incorporated into a financial plan bylaw to be presented to the March 28 regional board meeting for first reading through adoption.
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