City prepares for fight over CBT funds at regional district level
By Nelson Daily Editor
By Timothy Schafer, The Nelson Daily
The city is mustering its forces to fend off a regional district plan to undermine several thousand dollars from Nelson’s Community Initiatives Program, Columbia Basin Trust money slated for community groups.
The Regional District of Central Kootenay is considering changing the present formula for determining the allotment for CIP to a population only formula — one which would see the City’s total granting pot drop from $132,882 to $126,445 for 2012.
The population formula was intended to take the distortion out of the process, whereby one community would receive more funding than another because property values were higher in one community.
Currently, the regional district — administer of the CIP — formula is based on a blend of property assessment and population. Other regional districts use a population basis only for allocating grants.
However, at the regional district board meeting Feb. 24, Mayor John Dooley, the city’s representative on the board, asked to table the motion to change the formula until he had received his direction from City council.
He received that direction recently from council who instead asked for some latitude on the determination of the funding formula.
Most of the service groups and non-governmental organizations tend to be in the larger centres, said City manager Kevin Cormack, and they provide services throughout the greater region.
Those groups come to Nelson City council to ask for CBT funding and the demand is greater as a result, Cormack pointed out.
“So it makes sense to have some sort of recognition of that,” he said. “Population only doesn’t recognize that.”
Council passed the directive that Mayor Dooley ask for the RDCK board to investigate additional alternatives to the proposed allocation formulas that would take into consideration both population and the locations of NGOs and service clubs.
The regional district board of directors has the ultimate authority in consultation with the CBT to set an allocation formula. The next RDCK board meeting is March 24.
