GUYSBOROUGH — To better manage its investments in local initiatives, the Municipality of the District of Guysborough (MODG) plans to introduce a new $200,000 community infrastructure fund for major projects, effective next year.
“The [program] would be for improved community amenities, accessibility, equity outcomes and driving economic growth,” Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Shawn Andrews told members of council at their committee of the whole (COW) meeting on July 3.
“Things that we would be looking at [for projects] would be related to recognizing the infrastructure priorities of the MODG. In other words, is the project beneficial to the [individual] community [and] the entirety of the MODG?”
Under the rules – developed by MODG staff at the direction of council – the fund would grant a maximum of $200,000 to one community project per year. A qualifying group will only be eligible to receive one grant every 10 years.
According to Chief Administrative Officer Barry Carroll, in an interview with The Journal on July 15, “Right now, the municipality is giving out maybe $500,000 in [community] grants. There’s been no existing structure to the major asks. They’ve just sort of been treated as one-offs. Now, this lets council get a handle on things.”
Noting the increasing demands on the public purse, as civic and economic development initiatives continue to grow in communities across the municipality, Carroll told the COW meeting that people have high expectations.
“The Mulgrave Road Theatre, for example, came in looking for a grant of $400,000. Larry’s River was just in [presenting to council] just a little while ago for the Acadian society and they’re looking at doing a facility there. We know the African Nova Scotian community [in the MODG] is looking at an Afrocentric care facility at some point. We know in Canso they’ve been talking about a heritage centre there… What we’re [saying] is that, if we let people know in advance [what’s available], this allows us to plan in budget years.”
He added: “I don’t expect that every year [council] will get a grant request to this [$200,000] amount, but you may. But, as the grant is limited to one per year, council can decide which group gets it in the current year, and deal with [other] applications in future years.”
MODG Warden Pitts supported the new plan.
“Let’s say I’m ‘Vernon Pitts Association’ in Lundy,” he told the COW meeting. “You [council] allocate $150,000 to my project. But, without this policy that we’re speaking about today, if I need another $150,000, I just come back next year and the year after that… You know, we have eight districts here [in the MODG]. If we have one district coming in every year taking the entire pot, that’s not fair.”
The COW also agreed to enhance the value of MODG’s five annual capital recreation grants to $25,000 from $12,500.
Council expects to formally adopt both measures at its regular meeting on Wednesday, July 17.
Alec Bruce, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Guysborough Journal