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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The organizers of NWT Pride are expressing their disappointment that the city has not been able to offer financial support to the organization on the eve of Yellowknife's second-annual Pride festival.

Iman Kassam from NWT Pride is disappointed that the city was unable to offer more funding to the non-profit organization. NWT Pride is currently an unregistered non-profit, which prevents it from receiving donations as per the citys policies on special grants. - Nicole Garbutt/NNSL photo

According to Nancy MacNeill the structure of the city's financing of non-profits prevent it from offering financial assistance to non-registered charities.

"Their funding options available to non-profits, especially unregistered non-profits, is really limited," said McNeill, who is the Pride chairperson. "Unfortunately, NWT Pride is one of the casualties of that."

By all accounts, the city and especially the mayor have been vocal in their support of NWT Pride and have passed several resolutions over the years to that effect.

However, the city's current special grant policies prevent it from offering funding to unregistered non-profits.

These policies are the same ones that prevented the city from funding the Farmer's Market.

"I think they are kind of just in a position now where they're starting to realize how restrictive their funding sources are," said MacNeill. "They know that, and I don't think they're happy about it either."

Councillor Bob Brooks, who is the chair of the special grants committee, said the city does not fund unregistered non-profits because the GNWT's Cities, Town's and Villages Act restricts it from allocating more than a maximum of two per cent of its annual operating budget, which amounts to approximately $100,000, toward special grants.

He said the city receives between $300,000 and $700,000 worth of requests every year, and the policy of not funding unregistered non-profits helps to narrow down the field.

The organizers of NWT Pride had specifically asked if the city could provide a free bus service that would run every hour on the hour from the city to the Folk on the Rocks site where the event is being held on Saturday and Sunday.

Because the city-run buses are contracted out to Cardinal Coach Lines Ltd., it was unable to offer the service for free.

However, when the bus is booked by the city, it receives a 50 per cent discount. As a compromise, the city was willing to have Pride book the bus through it so the event could benefit from the discount.

Even with the discount, the bus service would cost $2,100.

Pride organizers are now stuck with the dilemma of whether they should pay for the service and risk having to raise even more money for next year, or not paying for the bus and affecting the attendance at this year's festival.

MacNeill said she did not know whether the bus would be running but said that at very least she hopes to organize a service late at night to prevent people from drinking and driving.

"It's not even so much the money that is the big grievance, it's that we would love to be able to have the City of Yellowknife on our posters. We would love to be able to say thank you to the City of Yellowknife for helping us. We would love to say that we work in partnership with the city. That's what is disappointing, is that we can't." said Iman Kassam, director of NWT Pride.

"Unfortunately, this makes us one of the only Pride festivals in the country that isn't primarily supported by our city, which really sucks," added MacNeill.

Despite the fact the city has not funded Pride, the organization has received donations from several corporate sponsors including $7,500 from TD Canada Trust, $5,000 from the Union of Northern Workers, and $5,000 from the PSAC.

The GNWT's department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE) also donated $3,500 toward supporting educational workshops and musical acts.

There have also been private donations ranging from contributions of between $10 to $800, including a personal donation of $300 by Mayor Mark Heyck.

"We have a great relationship with the city and with Mark Heyck. I guess that's kind of what makes it more confusing," said Kassam.

Kassam added that although NWT Pride's current financial situation is unfortunate when compared to other Canadian cities, she is proud that in contrast to cities such as Toronto, NWT Pride at least has the support of the mayor.

"If I had to pick one of the two, I prefer the outcome we have here," said Kassam. "I prefer having the support of the mayor without the financial support of the city."

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