City grants to non-profits could get a boost at the rate of inflation after city staff presented options for a revised funding formula to council.
Currently, the annual funding envelope available to distribute through the grant, called the Outside Agency Grant Program, is calculated by multiplying the city's population by $9. The grant helps non-profits cover operating costs.
A motion that was approved earlier this year, which was put forward by Coun. Natalie Joly in response to council hearing from multiple non-profits that the need for services has skyrocketed in recent years, directed administration to develop a revised funding formula that accounts for inflation.
On June 13, city staff presented a revised formula that kept the $9 base figure, although before multiplying the base by population, the figure would be multiplied by the provincial Consumer Price Index as of April (ACPI) each year.
Statistics Canada data shows that the 2023 ACPI represented a 4.3 per cent increase compared to last year, meaning that if council was to approve the formula next year's funding envelope for the Outside Agency Grant Program would be calculated by multiplying $9.39 by the most recent population estimate.
Although city staff developed a revised formula, council heard during the standing committee of the whole meeting that the new formula wasn't being recommended because of concern for the “taxpayer dollar," the city's senior advisor of grants and partnerships Anna Royer said, and because the city is unsure how much of the overall population will access non-profit services as the community continues to grow.
Refuting administration's recommendation, Coun. Sheena Hughes and Coun. Mike Killick noted that this year's funding for the Outside Agency Grant Program was nearly $200,000 less than the overall funding requests received from eligible non-profits, and that the council-approved motion requested that the new funding formula should account for inflation.
“Construction (and) operating costs are going through the roof,” Killick said. “I definitely want to have it reflect what was asked for originally, which was accounts for inflation because all of our outside agencies are getting affected hugely by inflation.”
However, after Coun. Wes Brodhead asked staff why the ACPI figure was chosen and Royer explained the ACPI represented a “well-rounded dollar value or increase for St. Albert,” council unanimously approved a motion directing administration to develop a list of similar indexes that the funding formula could use to account for inflation and present them as options for consideration as part of the July 4 council meeting.
