SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Twenty-two organizations around Yellowknife will receive money from the city for a variety of projects and events after city council approved special grant funding on March 8.

"Core and special grants are the best value for money that the city has to offer," city councillor Bob Brooks told Yellowknifer on March 16.

"Anywhere between one (thousand) and $15,000 dollars can actually mobilize 10, 50, 100 volunteers. If the city (were to put on these programs) themselves, they'd never get the value that all the volunteers are putting in," said Brooks.

City council handed out a total of $93,500 to the 22 different community organizations.

Some grants at the lower end of the funding spectrum include those for the Northwords Writers Festival which will get $3,500 to help with their summer festival; the SideDoor Youth Ministries will get $2,500 for a skateboard program; the Yellowknife Guild of Arts and Crafts is receiving $1,000 to print a cookbook; the Rotary Club will get $1,000 for a large lobster crock to be used at fundraising events; and the Aurora Fiddle Society will get $2,000 to host a fiddling workshop.

Mid-level funding is going toward the Yellowknife Community Garden Collective which will receive $4,000 to put a community garden in the Weledeh Catholic School area; Western Arctic Moving Pictures will get $5,000 for the purchase of new equipment; NJ Macpherson School's parent advisory committee will get $5,100 to assist in making their playground accessible to children with disabilities.

At the higher level of funding is $10,000 to go toward the resurrection of Raven Mad Daze and the Yellowknife Climbing Club will get $10,000 to construct an indoor climbing wall.

Brooks said the city's grant review committee will be examining the criteria for awarding grants next week to see if it is up to date.

"There's categories in the special grants as to what areas we're supposed to fund ... should we be doing more sports, less sports, more arts, less arts?" said Brooks.

He said the current amount of funding allowed by the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs – only two per cent of the city's operating budget – isn't enough to accommodate all the viable requests that come through. He said he'd like to see that increase.