Todd Reade's Blog

The 2009 Federal Budget outlines provisions for addressing the infrastructure deficit in sport and recreation through the new Recreation Infrastructure Canada (RInC) Fund.

The RInC Fund provides $500 million over two years to support construction of new community recreational facilities and upgrades to existing facilities. The initiative will support up to 50 per cent of the total cost. To be eligible, projects must be “shovel ready.” Plans should be in place soon for evaluation, and should be able to be initiated within ten months.

For more information on this initiative and how funds will be administered in Alberta, please visit the Western Economic Diversification website at www.wd.gc.ca/eng/home.asp.

http://www.sportmatters.ca/Images/2009%20Folder/Budget%202009/PRO_Budget_press%20release.htm

The 2009 Provincial Budget has offered up very little, if anything, for those sectors operating with a “quality of life / community development / volunteer capacity building” focus. Most notably, there will be NO renewal of the Major Community Facilities Grant Program; no increases/decreases in lottery funding to the ASRPWF, AFA, Community Spirit Program, and CFEP program; a reduction in funding for the Community Initiatives Program (CIP); a 50% reduction in Agricultural Initiatives Program funding; and overall reduced Lottery Fund expenditures within the “Tourism, Parks and Recreation” funding component. Additionally, the dissolution of the Wild Rose Foundation and an associated $8.5 million cut in lottery revenues has been carried out with an expectation that the CIP will now become the replacement funding mechanism.

Within Alberta Lottery Fund disbursements, $257 million will be directed to Alberta Health Services; $375 million will be directed to Provincial Highway Rehabilitation, Provincial Highway Preservation, and Rural Transportation Partnership; and $26 million will be directed to Municipal Sustainability Operating grants. Community-based health, innovative health research, and community education have all been drastically reduced or eliminated, and less provincial funding is being directed to community-based innovations and initiatives… this at a time when senior levels of government will want the not-for-profit voluntary sector and local governments to take on more “divested services.”

Essentially, the Lottery Fund is being used more extensively than ever before for General Revenue Fund (GRF) type expenditures while program expenditures traditionally linked to the Lottery Fund are being reduced or eliminated. Such a move is a significant departure from previous public policy and, how gaming devices such as VLTs (and the use of accruing revenue) were originally justified to the general public and Alberta communities.

While the fiscal circumstances being faced by the Provincial Government are acknowledged, remedial action continues to be at the expense of so-called “discretionary soft services.” These services are, in fact, vital to a caring, active and connected society and, ones that need more than ever, in difficult times an investment so as to enhance overall wellness and quality of life in Alberta.

ARPA – http://www.arpaonline.ca