Grande Prairie city council has chosen not to raise the amount of money given to community groups this year. At a council meeting on Monday, it was decided that funding would stay at the same level in 2020 as it was in 2019. Mayor Bill Given says that will cause members to sit down and think carefully about who they fund.
“That will require council to review the organizations that are funded or proposed to be funded and decide whether they are all of the same relative priority. That will be some difficult work but I think that’s ultimately the work that council was elected to do.”
Each year the city provides financial support to various community groups or agencies who provide programs and services that benefit the City of Grande Prairie and its residents. In 2019, 35 groups including Big Brothers, Big Sisters and STARS received $4.3 million in funds.
Given says in the past, councils have upped group funding to meet demand but he says that’s not how it will work this year.
“We’re really in a situation now where council has directed that the overall amount of money that the city spends needs to stay the same or go down and that means council will need to reprioritize and that the most important things are likely the ones that will be funded.”
The amount of money each group will get will be talked about at a meeting on September 10th.