Tantramar council will be asked to approve $110,000 in community grants to local organizations at their meeting next week, nearly half the total amount of requests for funding that the town received.
Grant requests for 2024 totalled just over $210,000, the largest amount ever in the grant program to date. In 2023, community groups asked for just over $156,000, and that amount reversed a trend that saw requests actually drop in 2021 and 2022, when the program covered just the former town of Sackville. Active Living director Matt Pryde says that expansion of the program to cover the vastly expanded territory and population of Tantramar is a “big part” of the reason for the increase.
This year’s increase in requests was met with only a small increase in budget, an additional $5,000 over the 2023 amount. That means many groups may be left unhappy, unless council choses to make budgetary changes.
The lion’s share of applications and funding go to sports, heritage and arts organizations, but this year’s crop of applicants also included poverty and food security related groups, like the Sackville Food Bank, the Sackville Farmers Market, the Sackville Community Garden, the Open Sky Cooperative, and Greater Dorchester Moving Forward.
Open Sky was rejected for a small capital grant towards a greenhouse project, but Director of Community and Corporate Services Kieran Miller explained that the project did already receive municipal funds through Renaissance Sackville.
Greater Dorchester Moving Forward was rejected for two of its three applications, but is recommended for an operations grant of $3,000.
In total, about $100,000 in grant requests are recommended to be turned down. Pryde says that even after using a scoring matrix to help evaluate the applications, it was a difficult process.
“I can’t understate how hard it is to go through these applications,” Pryde told CHMA. “You see so many groups doing such great work, and when you have such an overwhelming demand and only so much you can give, it’s not easy to make those decisions.”
Pryde said the evaluation team focussed on operational needs this year, turning down most of the capital funding requests.
“We do try to spread it out between sports and arts and culture as best we can,” said Pryde. “Some of the groups need the money more than others… And some have had past history where they’ve come to rely on the grant as well, especially on the operational side. So we take all those things into consideration.”
Hockey and Skating clubs to see new subsidy program
The Sackville Skating Club and Sackville Minor Hockey both saw their award recommendations drop slightly this year, by $2,000 and $3,000 respectively. Pryde said the drop was in consideration of a different, new subsidy program recently approved by council, which will save the organizations thousands in rink fees.
Pryde said with the new subsidy program, Sackville Minor Hockey could save about $30,000 in rink fees, and the Sackville Skating Club could save about $7,000. The two clubs will in turn commit to lowering their registration fees, which the town hopes will open up access to the sometimes cost prohibitive sports programs.
The new subsidy program prompted Pryde to recommend smaller community operations grants for each organization this year. That got Councillor Michael Tower wondering about high school hockey.
In December, Tantramar Regional High School principal Susan Lafford asked for the town to include its Titans hockey program under the new subsidized rink fee program, and staff are due to come back to council at a future meeting with a recommendation on that request.
At council’s last committee of the whole meeting, Tower wondered whether the Titans teams would need community grants if they were about to be recommended for the rink fee subsidy. Each Titan team is on the list for community grants of $1,000 each.
“I worry that if we’re going to end up giving them a break on their ice time, they’re not going to need this $1000 each,” said Tower. “So I personally would like to see that part changed and put on the table to come back later.”
Pryde agreed to postpone the recommendation on the Titans community grants until council has made a final decision on the high school teams’ possible inclusion in the rink fee program.
Potential conflicts of interest declared
The vote on Tantramar’s community grants program will be smaller than usual. Several councillors and the mayor have declared potential conflicts of interest and so will be sitting out the decision. Mayor Andrew Black, Councillor Matt Estabrooks, and Councillor Josh Goguen all declared conflicts on January 22, as did two staffers, assistant clerk Becky Goodwin and manager of Tourism and Development Ron Kelly Spurles.
The community grants program also directly involves CHMA-FM. The station applied for $5,000 in operational funding and is recommended for $2,500 to support a public service announcements program.
The recommendations are due back before council on February 13.
