Every year, Penticton city council struggles with grant requests, and there are always too many for the amount of money available.
Evaluating the grants is an onerous task — in the past, it has taken two or three days to go through the applications — and it’s not a pleasant job deciding who gets what, or perhaps nothing at all.
The grant process is under review by city staff right now, and not for the first time — in previous years, this council has suggested having a group of citizens vet the applications, or perhaps turn over some of the responsibility to the Community Foundation of the South Okanagan.
For the last few grant years, city council has tried to implement a policy of weaning groups off grants, cutting their requests by a third each year until the group is standing on its own. Or that it fails completely, and whatever event or service they provide is lost to the community.
There are problems with the gradual reduction concept, the first being that council has never implemented it across the board; Councillors always argue that one group or another should be fully funded. If your group isn’t one of the lucky ones, you’re likely to see a cut.
And there are some events and services that shouldn’t be allowed to die away because their funding was gradually choked off.
This is a task that only council can do. It’s not something that can be done by a formula, nor should an outside group or city staff influence which organizations get taxpayer dollars — that is what the council members were elected to do.
Most organizations gather funding from a variety of sources. That’s a good thing, businesses and individuals should help with financial support of valuable services, but so should the city invest in events and services that are important to the fabric of life in Penticton, both to residents and the visitors the mayor says we need to attract in hopes that some will choose to move their businesses here.
Yes, the grant process needs to be reviewed but by council, not staff. Council needs to abandon the failed “weaning off policy” and establish both quantitative and qualitative benchmarks, that incorporate the value of the service or event to the social fabric of the community.
This is a responsibility we expect elected officials to take on, regardless of whether it wins them any popularity contests.