City councilors have scuttled plans to change the grants program.
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Councillors voted to maintain the status quo at its June 25 meeting.
“When we deal with this at committee we voted to defer it and have it come back in August for a decision,” Coun. Gino Caputo said. “But I just don’t know if that’s what I believe should be done.
“I think we should just keep doing it the way we have been doing it.”
Caputo said the city has done a great job groups like Nova Vita and the Brantford Food Bank, the Seniors’ Resource Center and Brant Food For Thought.
“We should just vote this down tonight,” Caputo said.
City officials had proposed having all city grants including those provided to several organizations including Nova Vita and Brant Food For Thought administered by the Brant Community Foundation.
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At present, grants provided to those organizations as well as St. Andrew’s Church, Grace Anglican Church and the Salvation Army are currently provided directly by the city during budget deliberations.
Under the proposed changes, those organizations would, like all others in the city, be required to apply to the foundation for grants. However, the amount they could apply for and receive would be capped at about $15,000 meaning many of those organizations would lose funding as a result of the changes.
For example, Brant Food For Thought receives $85,000 from the city to support its in-school nutrition programs. Under the proposed changes, the organization stood to lose $70,000 in funding.
Coun. Rose Sicoli voted against the deferral and said she already heard from many people including representatives of the teachers’ union who spoke about the importance of Brant Food For Thought.
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“There are thousands of children who rely on this funding and to even consider removing that, it would be a travesty for the neighborhoods and children who rely on it,” Sicoli said.
The motion to defer the proposal was defeated by 2-9 votes. The vote means the proposed changes will not go through which, in turn, means the grant program will remain as is.
City officials proposed the changes to create a fairer, more open process for more organizations to receive city-funded grants.
Having the foundation make decisions about grant allocation takes the politics out of the process, city officials said.
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