Except for the local hospital, community groups in Penetanguishene may want to try making a better case for why the town should fund their organization come budget time.
A report on community grants was presented to the recent committee of the whole meeting during its finance and corporate services section, seeking to repeal current policy ways to fund organizations, and remind applicants that only during budget discussions would funding be considered.
According to the report, Penetanguishene had been providing capital grants to community organizations since 2012, and through formal policy since 2019 where applications could be submitted to the town for decision making in the annual budget talks.
Some confusion was expressed by council members, prompting director of finance/treasurer Carrie Robillard to explain the rationale for the staff recommendations.
“We do get funding requests throughout the year,” said Robillard, “regardless of whether they are capital or operating, we present them to council regardless of whether they fall within the capital program guidelines.
“In terms of repealing this particular policy, we would continue to receive financial requests. We would advise anybody asking for funding that we're only looking at them through the annual budget process.”
Robillard added that if time-sensitive requests were brought to staff’s attention, council would be made aware through their council information packages.
“Regardless of the policy, we present all financial requests to council anyways,” said Robillard on why the policy should be repealed. “Last year, for example, we had $25,000 and there was – I can't remember the number of applications that came in – but there might have been half a dozen or more that totalled about $87,000 in requests.
“So it's gone a little bit beyond the scope of what the original intent of that policy was; and I certainly don't recommend increasing the capital loan program from the current level to, let's say, $87,000 in funding requests.”
Section chair Coun. Bonita Desroches agreed that the policy had drifted, noting that while staff worked hard to vet applications, a council decision which doesn’t follow policy would warrant the policy repeal.
“My only concern is that when these requests do come in, as a council, we won't have a baseline. Everybody will be in the pot, and so we won't have any rules to follow, to really look at these applications," she said.
"So I don't know that everybody will be on the same footing. We're going to have organizations that may not have complete financials; we'll have organizations that may have full-time people who can write to ask for money and they're going to have stellar applications.”
Mayor Doug Rawson chimed in with praise for the report and its recommendations, addressing the pressures on staff due to non-resident fees for the town’s infrastructure and other extra workloads.
“If I look at the amount of (capital grant) money, that $168,550 has been distributed since 2012, I would say the lion’s share has gone to (Georgian Bay General Hospital),” said Rawson. “And I think this council did a good thing last budget time where we said: ‘let's let the county do that through the county's hospital alliance program’.
“I know it's difficult for us to have that conversation, but we need to have a more concerted effort on how we fund the hospital, and that needs to be a county-coordinated response.
Additional comments were provided through Coun. George Vadeboncoeur, who conceded the difficulty to choose which grants would be allocated. He stated that council involvement had been limited to when applicants appeared for their requests, which didn’t allow council to vet prior to those presentations.
“I think there are opportunities to do that… vetting ahead of time, and to allocate dollars based on what we feel, as members of council, in terms of what are worthy causes,” said Vadeboncoeur.
“I like the idea of one intake, but I also like the idea of working within a set budget – whatever that set budget is, that's all we have. They could have $87,000 worth of asks but we only have $15,000 to allocate; that’s all that’s going to get allocated.”
Although Coun. Suzanne had expressed concerns similar to Desroches that worthy organizations may be left aside, her request to explore alternate options than the staff recommendation was overruled.
The committee of the whole approved repealing the policy, with direction that funding requests outside budget deliberations be referred to the budget, but with council receiving updates through the council information package.
The community grants review report can be located on the agenda page of the Town of Penetanguishene website.
Meetings of Penetanguishene council are held on the second Wednesday of each month, and can be watched live on Rogers TV cable 53 when available, or on the Rogers TV website.
Archives of council meetings are located on the Town of Penetanguishene YouTube channel.
