The Saskatchewan Lotteries Community Grant policy is being reviewed by Lloydminster council and new changes focus on ensuring money stays in the community.
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“The purpose of the Saskatchewan lotteries community grant policy is to ensure proper distribution of funds received through the Saskatchewan Lotteries Community Grant program,” said Marie-Pierre Côté, the city’s community development coordinator.
A number of changes were made, including increasing the approval limit for the city manager or designate to reallocate unused or returned grant funds from $10,000 to $50,000 per grant cycle. Reallocations will be announced through annual reporting.
“The intent is to ensure we can expense any unused dollars rapidly at the end,” said Tracy Simpson, executive manager of community development services. “Usually what happens is, at the end of the grant cycle, we get reports in and we find out there’s unused funds and we have a really quick turnaround time to reallocate them to groups.
“So, if they were over $10,000, under the current policy, we’d have to come back to council and that could risk not being able to allocate those dollars back into the community before they have to be returned to the province.”
She says extensions cannot be provided to spend the funding and it must be allocated again.
Funding that isn’t entirely used by the city must be reallocated or the funding will be returned to the province.
“When we’re in a situation where an organization hasn’t spent all their funds, we look at the list of organizations that have submitted reporting,” said Patrick Lancaster, manager of social programs and services.
“We’re looking for a couple of things. We’re looking for organizations that have not received the entirety of their ask. We’re also looking for organizations that have provided sufficient receipting because that’s the most important part of this process.”
When it returns to the city manager to redistribute, he typically looks back to the committee for guidance.
“If it does come to me, I ask, what did the committee recommend in the first place or what was the discussion,” said Dion Pollard, city manager.
Coun. David Lopez was happy to see the change.
“I do like that. I’ve sat in enough of these that the funding is there and we have a little bit of funding left, if it was only easier just to call people and say we can give you a little bit more,” he said.
The Communities Services Advisory committee doesn’t have decision-making power when it comes to allocating funding.
“Right now, the terms of reference and the language that we’ve trained them on is, they’re an advisory committee,” said Simpson.
A timeline has been added for a grant cycle, which is now a one-year term starting April 1 and ending March 31 of the following year. A requirement was also added that the manager of social programs and services must review all applications for eligibility.
A notable update to the policy will see eligibility expanded from only Saskatchewan-based organizations to all organizations outside city limits as long as they are benefiting Lloydminster residents.
“We advocated for that. Obviously that’s a unique thing for Lloydminster and they were comfortable with that language,” said Simpson. “And that intent, knowing part of our communities in Alberta.”
Coun. Justin Vance was happy to see the province allow the Saskatchewan funding to stretch across the border.
“I do applaud administration for that,” he said. “This is just nice to see that they were willing to recognize the Alberta side as well (and) applicants living outside of the city.”
Council accepted the report as information and it’s expected to return to a future council meeting.
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