Castlegar council denied a $5000 grant application for travel funding from the Castlegar Queen Committee at their Sept. 25 meeting.
Council made it clear that the decision was made, not because the city doesn’t support or appreciate the organization and its contributions to the city, but simply because the application goes against the city’s current grant policy.
A policy put into place in 2017 prohibits giving grants for travel expenses.
The decision didn’t sit well with Councillor Cherryl MacLeod, who said she thought council should consider revisiting the policy.
But Councillor Sue Heaton-Sherstibitoff, who was on council when the policy was developed, said that the restriction was developed based on feedback from the business community that requested that grant dollars stay local in order to get a double community benefit by supporting local business.
Mayor Maria McFaddin suggested that a better way to support the Castlegar Queen program would be to create a budget line item for future years.
Council invited the committee to come back with a new application for funding a different part of the program.
The city’s grants policy can be found at castlegar.ca/government/your-government/policies.
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