The provincial budget is good news for the Town of Olds, with Municipal Sustainable Initiative funding going up slightly for operating and capital funding, but local not-for-profit groups will feel a pinch.
The town will be getting just under $1.6 million in capital funding from the MSI program for 2013, up slightly from 2012, with the town also receiving about $130,000 in operating funding in 2013.
"We lost a couple of smaller grant programs. The Summer Temporary Employment Program is no longer there and a grant program we used to fund some of the things at the (O.R. Hedges) Campground, that program is no longer available. Overall, pretty good news locally,î said Norm McInnis, the town's chief administrative officer.
The two programs combined gave the town about $24,000 per year in funding.
In the non-profit category, Barbara Hill, the town's director of community services, said while the provincial budget won't have an impact on the town's Family and Community Support Services budget, it will have a negative impact on some groups. Funding for the Community Initiatives Program has been reduced by $500,000 over 2012 to $24.75 million, while funding for the Community Facilities Enhancement Program has been maintained at $38 million for this year. The Community Spirit Program has been eliminated.
"Not-for-profit organizations use those to help advance their initiatives in the community in different ways,î she said.
The Community Spirit Program was designed for organizations to use private donations and get them matched to a certain level to help fund the operations of the organization, for example.
"Not all organizations took advantage of it, but those that did certainly have money that was less restrictive to use because it matched money that individuals contributed to the programs and services that they supported,î Hill said.
Marianne Dowell, a member of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets #185 Parents Association, and manager of the cadets hall, said that group wouldn't have been able to refurbish the officers' offices and the outside of the cadet hall without the $24,000 in matching funds it received through the Olds Rotary Club. The Rotary Club, in turn, received some of its funding through the CIP program.
"It sure has made life a lot nicer for our cadet officers to have that redone. There are a lot of community projects that rely on that kind of money,î she said.
Dowell said the Netook Gliding Centre has relied on funding from the CFEP in the past to improve the runway and hangar at the centre.
"There's no way they could have done any of that (without those funds),î Dowell said.
Robin Knudsen, a past-president of the Olds Rotary Club and president of Medic Canada, said he has written several applications in the past to the CIP requesting funding for both organizations.
"This has resulted in an incredible amount of support that we've received over the last seven years. It's in the hundreds of thousands of dollars,î he said.
Knudsen said in the last two years, the provincial government reduced any matching money from a previous high of $25,000 down to $20,000, "and to reduce them more is going to greatly affect our ability to carry out these projects.î
"This has resulted in an incredible amount of support that we've received over the last seven years. It's in the hundreds of thousands of dollars."Robin Knudsen, past president, Olds Rotary Club
