Sechelt council has approved the grant recommendations from the Sunshine Coast Community Forest Legacy Fund Committee, but councillors held off on OK’ing additional money the committee wanted for one of the groups.
Coun. Eric Scott, who represents the district on the committee, told council at its July 15 meeting that this year’s applications were well in excess of the $72,430 remaining in the Legacy Fund’s unreserved balance.
The written report from the committee said community groups came forward with $3.4 million in grant requests and five groups were recommended to share $72,400 in funding.
“The [committee] sat down and went through each one of the submissions and worked with the money that we had, what was going to do the best good for the community, but also recognizing some of the people asking for money had received money recently in the past so it was time to spread the wealth around,” Scott said.
The grants recommended by the committee included: $8,000 for the Sunshine Coast Association for Community Living to help the organization meet the additional demand for support from clients during the COVID pandemic, $7,000 for the Roberts Creek Community Association to upgrade the commercial kitchen at the community hall, $5,400 for a cold storage unit and shelters at St. Bart’s church to protect food and clients from the weather while they operate outdoors during the pandemic, and $12,000 for the Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives for an HVAC retrofit and humidity control system.
The committee also recommended council approve $40,000 for the Sunshine Coast Salmonid Enhancement Society to help pay for the identification of likely sites and drilling of test wells as part of the society’s plan to secure a water supply for its hatchery that will allow it to be less reliant on Chapman Creek.
The society had asked for more, and the committee suggested an additional $50,000 be awarded to the group from the reserved Legacy Fund “to ensure our local hatchery operation can continue.”
Coun. Alton Toth said he’s reluctant to start drawing on the reserved fund. “I’m not sure yet that I'm ready to start pulling money out of that fund without a broader look at how we want to do it,” Toth said, adding that the district should also look at ways to support the Salmonid Enhancement Society in getting funding from other sources.
Mayor Darnelda Siegers said before considering the additional $50,000 council should hear directly from the society.
“I know that they have bigger plans,” she said. “It would be great if they could come and lay out those plans as well for us, and the community... We can have a conversation at that point.”
Council voted to approve the grants from the unreserved Legacy Fund, and invite representatives from the Salmonid Enhancement Society to a future committee of the whole meeting to explain their short and long-term plans for the hatchery facility and the water supply.
