SUMMERSIDE
Irony was not lost on Summerside City Councillors; minutes after approving the 2018-2019 budget, they were asked additional funding by a community organization.
On Tuesday, during the regularly scheduled council meeting, city staffers, chief financial officer, Rob Philpott and, chief administrative officer, Bob Ashley spoke on behalf of the East Prince Seniors Initiative (EPSI) who’s city funding was initially cut cut by around $3,000.
“There was a request from EPSI for additional financing for about $10,000. This is intended to help them, in their words, ‘keep the lights on’ for the fiscal year. In that light the mayor had asked volunteers from city council and staff to meet with EPSI to discuss the request,” explained Philpott during the meeting.
Members of council included councillors Bruce MacDougall, Norma McColeman and Greg Campbell as well as Philpott and Ashley.
While meeting with the popular community group, staff outlined how requests for funding are dealt with by the city and how approval of a financial asks are determined.
For the 2018-2019 year, EPSI received a grant of about $24,000, compared to 27,600 from the year before.
But because of the budget of 2018-2019 falls over a 15 month period rather than 12, they need about another $10,000 to continue running the program.
Philpott said that EPSI acknowledged the ask put a strain on council, and that they would ask other community groups to help out with the loss.
EPSI also asked the city if they would agree to a repayable loan of $7,500 rather than $10,000 in additional funding.
Ashley added, “Councillor McColeman suggested the organization considering applying for a grant from 100 Women who Care P.E.I.”
“We did go over a number of ways to restructure the organization… to their credit they have built their programming and services up where they feel that retracting programs or services that would be necessary would be difficult for them. You’re between a rock and a hard place on a decision on this.”
Councillor MacDougall said he would be interested in discussing a repayable loan, while Coun. Gordie Whitlock opted to discuss providing the funding.
“We looked at the budget numbers and we didn’t realize they had taken that big a hit. When you look at the fact that this was a 15-month budget they weren’t cut by a few thousand dollars they were cut by about $10,000 and that’s essentially what they’re asking back.”
Whitlock said he had no issue with approving the funding, which would restore the value of funding to last year’s total.
Whitlock said the organization should also reach out to other groups like the Rotary Club to secure funding for next year.
Councillor Brian McFeely agreed, urging council to find a way to make the funding happen.
After further discussion Whitlock motioned to approve $10,000 funding to EPSI restoring the group’s funding to last year’s total.
The motion was unanimously carried.
