Monday March 4, 2024 | LANGFORD, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Community grants are of great value to the City of Langford. They put motivated members of the community to work doing things that the municipality supports but may not have the formal budget or staffing compliment to carry out in the current year.
As part of their 2024 budget process, the Community Advisory Committee of the City of Langford reviewed their 2024 intake of community grant applications at the February 27 meeting. [See February 27, 2024 Community Advisory Committee meeting video – deliberations start at 33 minutes | Next meeting is Monday March 4, 2024 at 7 pm]
Who is on the committee:
City of Langford Councillor Keith Yacucha chairs the Community Advisory Committee; Councillors Colby Harder and Mark Morley sit on the committee.
It was evident that councillors had read all the submissions and had given them a lot of thought. The other committee members who attended were Chris Foxall, Frazer Johnson, Serena Klaver (remote), Nicholas Lehman, Moira McDonald (remote), and Robin Plomp.
How much was funded:
Social, environmental and humanitarian issues are covered by the range of groups applying for grants, said Councillor Morley. At the outset of deliberations he recommend funding for all organizations that applied. “Every organization here has merit and that they all receive some kind of funding if possible,” said Morley.
Here is the request list for 2024:
Grant Requests to City of Langford – February 27, 2024
| Organization | 2024 Amount Requested | 2024 Amount Award Recommendation(s) |
| Big Brothers Big Sisters | $5,000 | $5,000 |
| Bilston Watershed Habitat Protection Association | $1,000 | $1,000 |
| Bear Mountain Community Association | $1,500 | $1,500 |
| Capital Bike | $4,550 | $4,550 |
| City of Langford Pipe Band | $2,500 | $1,500 |
| GOATS Queer Climbing | $5,400 | $3,000 |
| Goldstream Farmers Market | $5,000 | $5,000 |
| Juan de Fuca Lacrosse Association | $10,000 | $6,000 |
| Juan de Fuca Performing Arts Society | $3,000 | $1,000 |
| Mental Health Society of Greater Victoria | $2,000 | $1,500 |
| Open Gate Church | $5,500 | $5,000 |
| Peninsula Streams & Shorelines | $25,000 | $15,000 |
| Reimagine West Shore Community | $2,900 | $2,500 |
| Rewired Recovery Foundation | $15,000 | $7,500 or $10,000 |
| Royal Canadian Legion (Branch 91) | $6,000 | $6,000 |
| Sport Assist | $2,000 | $2,000 |
| Take a Hike Foundation | $2,500 | $2,500 |
| Urban Food Resilience Society | $5,000 | $5,000 |
| Victoria Sexual Assault Centre | $5,000 | $5,000 |
| Wear2Start Society | $2,000 | $2,000 |
| Wild Wise | $2,500 | $1,500 |
| Wounded Warrior Run BC | $2,000 | $2,000 |
| TOTAL | $115,350 | $99,350 (high) / $83,250 (low) |
From a total initial collective request that tallied $115,350, the committee settled on a recommended list of $99,350 in grants across 22 applications.
The funds available in response to the Grants In Aid Policy shows as $80,000 in Draft Budget 2024. So the committee will be recommending to council that the difference of $19,350 be funded through the council contingency fund.
Councillor Harder referred to community grant expenditure by the City as being “great value” in that the city benefits by the enthusiastic leadership of people across the range of grant applications in ways that often cannot be provided by the city.
Nuances:
Some of the committee comments in deliberating the grant applications included:
- As pointed out by a member of the committee, the Juan de Fuca Performing Arts Centre does not yet exist; it’s been in planning and land-search phase for several years and as a group reaching across municipal borders in the wets shore has already received funding from Langford in their startup phase.
- Free little libraries can be continued on a community-volunteer basis without necessarily undertaking the cost of purchasing and maintaining the city’s legacy trolleys. Funding for the libraries was applied for through the Mental Health Society of Greater Victoria.
- Peninsula Streams & Shorelines receives and leverages funding from a wide range of supporters. Councillor Harder said Langford needs to play its part in climate resiliency.
- The Langford Branch 91 of the Royal Canadian Legion was given full marks for their impact of annual hosting two major community events: Remembrance Day Luncheon and Christmas Dinner.
- The Juan de Fuca Lacrosse Association was funded closer to the level of actual jersey and goal tender expenses with an eye to not helping contribute to debt repayment obligations.
Some new directions:
The committee stretched the city’s wings in a few areas:
- In light of the cost of living most notably groceries, the City of Langford will finally join other municipalities with the upcoming launch its first official community garden. In last week’s grant lineup the Urban Food Resilience Initiatives Society was shown as providing leadership for the food-growing capacity of Langford built-structures and food supply emergency planning across neighbourhoods. Councillor Morley said it’s important for Langford to be paying attention to food security. Councillor Harder said she’s excited at the idea of several more community gardens ‘popping up around Langford’.
- The committee also spoke freely of their interest to support a drag event by GOATS Queer Climbing at The Boulder House rock climbing facility, as a way to embrace diversity in the community.
- The Goldstream Farmers Market — while already a fixture of the Langford sprig-summer tourism season landscape — will see more bedrock support through the funding of paying for setup/takedown of musician and exhibitor equipment at the weekly market.
Timeline:
The deadline to submit applications for the 2024 grants process was January 15, 2024.
It is presumed the funds will be used in the 2024 calendar/budget year.
Update March 4: City of Langford Council approved the list of grant applications.
Committee rules:
Organizers of the Sarah Beckett Memorial Run did not submit their application in time for the deadline and the committee did its due diligence to follow the rules that their grants cannot be used for regranting.
But the event organizers (not formally a group) were offered in-kind support in the form of waiving venue rental and permit fee ($2,535) at Starlight Stadium for their May 12, 2024 event. In previous years the Sarah Beckett Memorial run event was funded by the (former) mayor’s golf tournament charity fundraiser, not the City of Langford.
Discussion about the Bear Mountain Neighbourhood Association application brought up a discussion about whether there are other neighbourhood associations around Langford and whether those should be encouraged and/or better incorporated into the city’s support system.
===== RELATED:
- Langford council member stalked at home (February 14, 2024)
- Opinion: Langford OCP refresh faces some challenges (January 26, 2024)
- Well-attended intro to Langford OCP refresh (January 24, 2024)
- Langford pre-meeting chit-chat greases community wheels (January 21, 2024)
- City of Langford – Budget 2024 (City of Langford website)