Families enjoying some fun in the Tot Lot in Battleford, one of the facilities receiving grant funding announced. (Josh Ryan/battlefordsNOW)

By Angela Brown

Support from province

Battlefords, Meadow Lake area programs receive support from CIF grants announced

Jun 21, 2021 | 2:24 PM

A number of Battlefords and Meadow Lake area programs for families will receive support from the Community Initiatives Fund (CIF) grants just announced.

In total, the province provided an emergency support grant to the Community Initiatives Fund for $4 million for the 2021-22 fiscal year, to help offset CIF’s significant loss of core funding due to the temporary closure of Casinos Regina and Moose Jaw during the pandemic.

The province’s Emergency Pandemic Response Gaming Grant will allow CIF to support the delivery of about 400 community-based programs and services throughout Saskatchewan during the year.

The CIF approved $2.6 million in support of 271 programs from the fund’s February 1 and April 1 application deadlines, for the grants announced June 21. These grants will contribute to the health and wellbeing of 40 communities across Saskatchewan.

The Town of Battleford’s Tot Lot is one of the programs that will benefit from grants from the Community Initiatives Fund grant.

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Battleford Parks and Recreation Manager Jordan Schechtel told battlefordsNOW the town applied for the funding for the program earlier in the year to pay for staffing at the Tot Lot. So he was glad the funding for $5,000 came through.

“It’s really important because for the Tot Lot, there are no user fees that are coming in. It is operated free of charge. A large portion of the operating costs are normally covered through grants,” he said. “So when we don’t receive those grants, it does definitely make it harder to operate that facility.”

Some of the other area programs that will benefit from the funding include the Battlefords Family Health Centre’s Land Based Learning Healthy Living Program that will receive $12,000.

Community Initiatives Fund executive director Tracey Mann said the grant from the province will help fill a gap.

“We’re very thankful that the government has acknowledged the support we provide to communities throughout the province,” she told battlefordsNOW. “While normally we would receive over $8 million in a year, the $4 million will help us to ensure that programming continues to happen throughout the province. We won’t be able to support quite as many different programs, but we will support as many as we can for sure.”

She said the source of CIF funding comes specifically from net profits from the two aforementioned casinos. So because they have been closed for several months, the government recognized the grant was needed to help make up for the loss of those revenues until casinos are able to generate profits again.

“Last year we supported just over 400 programs to operate, so we are hoping to be able to do that this year again as well,” Mann said.

As the CIF is still significantly short of what it would normally bring in, that will impact how much program funding it can support for communities in Saskatchewan.

“What will often happen is we may provide funding to programs but it might be at a lesser amount,” Mann said. “There are a couple of larger programs we had funded in the past that we’re not able to fund going forward. So we’re trying to manage within what we have, and support as many communities as we can.”

Here is a list of the Battlefords area and Meadow Lake programs that will benefit from the grants CIF announced June 21:

April deadline programs and services:

North Battleford – Battlefords Family Health Centre for the Land-Based Learning Healthy Living Program, $12,000.

Meadow Lake- Willow Creek Community Garden, $14,400.

Summer Grant Program:

Biggar -Town of Biggar for the Summer Day Camp Program, $5,000.

Battleford -Town of Battleford’s Tot Lot Program, $5,000.

North Battleford – Battlefords Boys and Girls Club for the Summer Adventure Day Camps, $2,500.

North Battleford – Battlefords Gymnastics Club for Community Programming, $5,000.

North Battleford – City of North Battleford for the Summer Day Camp Program, $5,000.

Wilkie – Wheatland Regional Library for the Time to get up! Time to get going! program, $5,000.

The CIF is a Special Purpose Fund created through The Saskatchewan Gaming Corporation Act, Part IV, and managed by a government-appointed board of community volunteers, according to the province’s release.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow