Edmonton City Council has instructed its administration to include a new capital funding program and a significant increase in operating dollars for community leagues in the 2011 and 2012 draft city budgets.
If approved this fall and next, the city will make $3.0 million in matching money available to community leagues, each year, for capital construction and renovation projects. It will also add $1.34 million to the annual operating grants for community leagues, which represents a 80 per cent hike in funding.
Council instructed the administration to include half of the increase – for both capital and operating dollars – in the 2011 draft city budget. The other half will be considered next year.
The funding request was put together by an EFCL/Community Services Department task force that is reviewing the license agreement the city has with the EFCL and Edmonton’s 152 community leagues. The task force recognized that a new funding arrangement was critical to the success of a new license agreement, as community leagues cannot borrow money and fundraising is getting increasingly difficult.
“It represents a new deal with the city,” noted EFCL president David Gibbens.
“Times are changing and we need to change with them.”
Task force members noted that the days are gone when community league members would mortgage their house in order to raise funds for a new hall – which was the way a number of halls were built 50 and 60 years ago.
Leagues also need to get more sophisticated when running their facilities. For example, many leagues now have tractor-mounted snowblowers and storage sheds to accommodate them – as the days of finding 12 people to man ice scrapers on a regular basis are quickly disappearing.
The task force has also recognized that it makes little sense to put significant dollars into new or renovated facilities if few people will use them. Consequently, for major projects, the league will need to show how the facility will be used and operational costs will be paid before the grant is approved.
The task force is also looking into the establishment of a clearing house that could match leagues with other non-profit agencies that would like to enter into a long-term rental or partnership agreement for the use of community league halls. This follows discussion the EFCL had with member leagues on July 8, when participants made it clear that they would like to explore long term rental/partnership opportunities, as opposed to one-off “party rentals.”
Other agencies under consideration include arts, sports and cultural organizations.
City council is scheduled to consider the funding request in late November/early December. If approved, the new funds would begin to flow Jan. 1, 2011. They would be for new projects only – not projects that the leagues would be seeking to finance retroactively.