Peter Crnogorac
Northern News Services
Friday, January 26, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - The rules may change for non-profit groups in Yellowknife when it comes to core and special funding.

Council is looking at changing the policy and criteria for these two types of funding.

In 2000, city council adopted the Core Funding Policy. At the time, $182,000 was budgeted for 10 Yellowknife non-profit groups that council decided were essential to the heritage and social prosperity of the city. Over the past seven years, the program has grown to 13 groups sharing $300,000 in core funding.

In 1999, the City of Yellowknife began a special grants program, providing funds to non-profit groups on a year-to-year basis.

On Monday, at a Priorities, Policies and Budget meeting, committee members decided to recommend passing, at a future council meeting, some changes to the guidelines and procedures governing core and special funding.

Coun. Bob Brooks, who is on the Special Grant Review Committee with Coun. Kevin Kennedy, said he agreed with changing the name of the Special Grant Review Committee to the Grant Review Committee.

However, he wanted the Special Grant Review Committee to look over two of the four proposed amendments before giving his recommendation. These being allowing the Special Grant Review Committee to review of core funding applications annually, and amending the funding policies and criteria.

"I'm surprised to see this come forward this way," he said. "I wanted to give this information to a review committee first. We seem to be pre-empting this as if the (special grant review) committee has already been able to do this, which it has not."

City administrator Max Hall said the Special Grant Review Committee would be given the opportunity to review the points Brooks pointed out before council decides on the issue.

There are several areas that council is looking to revise within the core funding scheme. They include requiring that ongoing programs and projects reduce their dependency on core funding over a period of time; that events held by organizations receiving core funding be open to the public, and that they may receive only a maximum 10 per cent increase in funding each year for a maximum of two consecutive years.

Ben Nind, executive director of the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre (NACC), one of the groups that receives core funding, said all 13 groups now receiving core funding were told in December about the proposed changes. He added that he agreed with the proposal.

"We have no problem at all with these changes," he said."It will bring forth long-term accountability and sustainability to the people who are giving us the funding: the taxpayers."