Town of Gibsons’ first intake of grants of assistance was cut back significantly for 2023.
Mayor Silas White said he spoke with councillors for input ahead of the April 18 committee of the whole meeting. He said there was general consensus to be modest in spending “considering there are a lot of cost pressures” and that the program needed to change, though not unanimity about which projects should be funded.
“Nobody had the exact same suggestions,” said White, “So I'll put forward what…seemed to emerge as a consensus.”
Where there were 12 grant applications for a total of $21,950 – though only $11,450 of that was eligible for funding said the staff report – the committee elected to spend $3,000. (Gibsons funded a total of $15,500 to 12 organizations in the first round of grants of assistance in 2022.)
White explained that there are a lot of organizations coming back with just tweaks to their projects and asking for funding for an essentially repeating program, “which was not necessarily the intent of the policy, it seems, depending on different councillors’ reading of the policies.”
Concerns around funding organizations that are already getting tax exemptions or budget lines, also came up in discussions, said White.
Committee members voted to provide $500 each to: The Parish of St. Aidan & St. Bartholomew’s All Who Hunger program, Deer Crossing Art Farm’s Copper Circle program, Gibsons Public Art Gallery’s In This Together: SC Pride Exhibition, Sunshine Coast Hospice Society’s Healing Through the Art of Writing & Storytelling project, Jack and Jill Parent Preschool’s Art Tables project and the Driftwood Players’ summer outdoor community theatre project.
