By Stewart Grant
With more Community Grant applications than ever before, the decisions of Council and staff on how to allocate $28,171 in budgeted funds were not easy ones. However, consensus was ultimately reached following the Town of St. Marys Strategic Priorities Committee meeting of Jan. 21 and the Regular Council meeting on Jan. 28.
“As everyone is aware, there are more grants requested than there is money … There’s only so much to go around,” said Mayor Al Strathdee during the Jan. 21 session.
André Morin, the Town’s Director of Corporate Services / Treasurer, echoed that sentiment as he spoke to Council about staff recommendations. “It becomes more and more difficult every year for us to provide you some recommendations.”
First up on the agenda were standing Community Grants, which were allocated for 2025 as follows:
- United Way Perth Huron - $11,079
- Station Gallery - $10,000
- Canada Day Parade - $3,000
- Community Dinner - $1,500
- St. Marys DCVI Scholarship - $1,500
- St. Michael Catholic School Scholarship - $750
Next, Council considered several application-based Community Grants, with the following amounts approved for 2025:
- St. Marys Kinsmen Summerfest - $5,000
- St. Marys Imagination Library - $3,500
- Goals - $3,428
- Kaswentha – Two Row Now - $3,000
- Royal Canadian Legion - $2,550
- Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame - $2,500
- St. Marys Farmers’ Market Association $2,000
- To St. Marys with Love - $1,826
- St. Marys Lincolns - $1,751
- Teddy Bear Reunion - $1,500
- Giving Tuesday - $892
- St. Marys Horticultural Society - $225
No grants were provided for various local sports associations, whose applications largely involved seeking grants to reduce user fees, which were judged to be not necessarily the intent of the grant policy.
In another application, for St. Marys Community Players, while they were not allocated a Community Grant, it was acknowledged that they receive benefit for the extended use of the town hall auditorium.
Alzheimer Society Huron Perth was another grant not allocated funds within the 2025 budget. With regards to their grant request, Councillor Jim Craigmile said, “I think we’re opening up a box here … there’s all kinds of others (of a healthcare nature) that I would like to see some funds going to, but we just can’t afford to support them all and so for that reason alone that’s why I took that one off my list.”
It was also noted that prior to the Strategic Priorities meeting, the budget had already allocated $125,000 to grant applications from local hospital foundations as a separate item.
Given the increased number of applications, it was unanimously agreed that a new process should be sought to most effectively deal with the Community Grant process on a go-forward basis.
To that end, Council resolved to appoint an ad-hoc committee with three members of Council and staff (Director of Corporate Services, Director of Community Services, and Finance Manager) to review the Community Grant policy. Volunteering to serve on the Committee were Councillors Marg Luna, Jim Craigmile, and Fern Pridham.
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