Andy Davidoff, RDCK director for Area I, has provided a community development grant for an event on June 2 at the Brilliant Cultural Centre hosted by the Kootenay Region Branch of the United Nations (KRUNA).
The “Gathering of Eagles” event is sub-titled, “Convergence for a Pipeline and Tanker Free B.C.”
Davidoff was asked by the Castlegar News for a breakdown of the costs and whether or not he felt he was supporting an event with a political agenda.
“The simple answer is that KRUNA have been around for a very, very long time and many of the people involved in KRUNA are my constituents,” said Davidoff. “Basically KRUNA approached all kinds of organizations for sponsorship of this event. I donated $500 to KRUNA to offset the costs of this conference.”
Davidoff said sponsorship of the event wasn’t making a personal, political statement of any kind, but that he was strictly supporting the activities of KRUNA.
“We used community development grants for this which can be social initiatives or environmental initiatives, conferences and things of that sort,” he said.
Davidoff said he didn’t feel sponsorship of the event was any different from sponsorship of the upcoming 2013 Recreation Facilities Association of BC conference.
“It would also be no different from a director supporting the trap-shooting club in Birchbank,” he said. “I have no problem supporting events where people are talking about issues that may be impacting our community, our province and if something big like this is happening in our area. I have no problem supporting discourse of all kinds.”
Other sponsors for this event (as listed on a poster distributed via email) are: USCC Working Groups, Nelson Chapter Council of Canadians, Valhalla Wilderness Society, Kootenays for a Pipeline-Free BC, MIR Centre for Peace, Eco Society, Peter Rezansoff, and Lower Columbia All First Nations.
What’s your take on this, reader? Do you feel this is a good use of community grants?