Barry Janyk, chair of the Island Coastal Economic Trust (ICET), announced amended proposal application guidelines for ICET last week.
At its inception in 2006, ICET received a $50 million allocation for economic development of the ICET region, which includes all of Vancouver Island north of the Malahat as well as the Sunshine Coast and Powell River regional districts.
"At the outset, the board decided to invest the bulk of the capital for local and regional economic development projects with a priority on producing economic benefits in the short term," said Janyk in a news release. "Our goal was to put the money to work immediately on visionary economic infrastructure projects that would spur incremental economic development. We are already seeing that the projects we have completed so far are the building blocks to the regional economic development of tomorrow."
After four years of operations, ICET has final project commitments and requests underway for almost $46 million, leaving approximately $4 million in unallocated funds for future projects. Recently, after consulting with the members of the two ICET regional advisory committees, made up of mayors, chairs of regional districts and MLAs in the ICET region, the board of directors made a number of adjustments to the application guidelines. These adjustments will ensure continuing and effective activity in light of diminishing ICET financial resources and a climate of scarce resources for economic development.
"After a year of major stimulus funding initiatives with significant matching by local governments, it became apparent that a reduced level of financial support activity would follow," Janyk added. "Our board felt that the most prudent measure would be to temporarily modify certain guidelines and streamline processes to ensure that there are still meaningful funds available for a significant period of time. This will enable our communities to continue to build on existing local and regional infrastructure investments and assist in the economic recovery in this period of fiscal restraint."
Janyk also indicated that ICET has launched discussions with the province aimed at replenishing its financial resources in the future, pending completion of its investments in the region.
The new guidelines can be found on the Trust website at: www.islandcoastaltrust.ca.
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