UCP cancels grant program for community groups
A grant program that helps fund projects by community groups ranging from sports associations to non-profit organizations to theatre groups has been quietly cancelled until further notice.
Friday was supposed to be the deadline to apply for the latest round of Alberta’s Community Initiatives Program (CIP) project-based grants. But on Tuesday, the government put out a news release saying it had temporarily reallocated those grants toward providing an additional $2 million in operating funding to non-profits and charities working amid the COVID -19 pandemic.
Project-based grants from the January round of applications, which would have been approved in July, have also been cancelled.
Although a news release was sent out, Heather Inglis, artistic producer for Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre, said the government didn’t inform community groups ahead of time and that she only found out about the cancellation at a meeting with other theatre groups on Thursday. She then found a note on the government’s website.
“It’s a huge blow and the way it has been delivered creates incredible unsurety. You can’t be confident where any government program sits at this point,” Inglis said Friday.
Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre was putting the final touches on an application for $16,000 to help match immigrants and refugee women with local playwrights to tell their stories as part of a national initiative. Now Inglis doesn’t know whether that project will be able to go ahead.
In a statement to Postmedia, Culture Minister Leela Aheer said the government has spoken with numerous charities and non-profits.
“They overwhelmingly told us that in order to survive the pandemic and continue to provide essential front-line services, more operating funding was required,” she said.
She said the decision was “based upon needs, not cost savings.”
While project grants focus on individual events, projects and equipment, operating grants cover costs including wages, rent and utilities.
A summary of previous project-based grants includes examples such as $50,000 for Calgary’s Habitat for Humanity, nearly $30,000 in hosting costs for the Edmonton Metropolitan Chorus, $46,000 for the Edmonton Opera Association’s new audio/visual equipment and $12,500 for the 2018 Alberta Ringette Provincials.
The operating grant stream will now be worth a total of $8 million.
The government news release says the May and September intakes will be combined into one in June and will focus on food security, shelter and housing, and addictions and mental health supports.
Aheer’s statement says the decision to reallocate was made because many of the project-based grants “were not able to move forward during COVID-19 due to (a) number of delivery and public health factors.”
Inglis said it takes about six months for the government to approve grants in addition to the time it takes to put projects together once the money has been signed off on. The project her group was applying for this week was not slated to launch until March 2021.
“When we do restart the economy, it means there’s going to be huge gaps and opportunities from a variety of sectors in the community will just evaporate at a time when people probably need them the most,” she said. “They need them the most to create optimism for the future and they need them because the services that are being offered by not-for-profits simply aren’t being offered anywhere else.”
NDP culture critic Nicole Goehring noted that the government also quietly cancelled the Multiculturalism, Indigenous and Inclusion Grant Program for the January and March intakes until further notice.
“Enough is enough. The UCP needs to deliver on its promise to support communities, non-profits and cultural groups. They must reopen the applications and restore this vital funding,” she said.
Goehring said the government should be able to fund both the project-based grants and the operating grants.