Edmonton City Council has opted to consider two of the three funding requests brought forward by the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues this year.

The first is to double the Community League infrastructure grant program from $1.5 million to $3 million per year.

This matches the amount that the federation originally requested for this program and closely reflects the total requests that came from Community Leagues in 2011.  Specifically, 51 applications were submitted by the Oct. 31 deadline, requesting $2.96 million in city funding.

The motion calling for the additional funds was made by Councillor Ed Gibbons and seconded by Councillor Kerry Diotte.  It will be deliberated and decided by council as a budget meeting in early-to-mid December.

The second motion, made by Councillor Kerry Diotte and seconded by Councillor Kim Krushell, was to provide $30,000 for a Community League training and development program.  If approved, these funds would be combined with money approved by the leagues through a membership fee increase this year, along with some dollars from the EFCL.  Funding would allow the federation of hire a full time training and development person who would set up workshops and courses in a variety of areas of interest to leagues, such as project management, hall and rink operations, board executive training, governance and strategic planning.  The EFCL work with city Community Recreation Coordinators and other organizations, such as Volunteer Alberta and the Edmonton Chamber of Volunteer Organizations, to deliver these programs.

One motion that didn’t make the cut was the federation’s request for a $668,000 boost to the annual operating grants received by Community Leagues.  This matches the request that the federation brought forward and was approved by city council last year.  It raised the average annual grant to each league from $10,800 to $15,200.