The amount of money the Town of Bonnyville is able to provide may be limited for 2020.
Council crunched the numbers from local organizations and town facilities during their regular meeting on Nov. 12.
While many of the groups made presentations to the municipality outlining their ask and where the funding would go, some were unable to so council used the information provided.
The amount requested for next year comes in at just over $1.7-million.
When it came to town facilities, the total was around $1.5-million for 2020, a slight increase from 2019’s $1.48-million.
A majority of the dollars asked for were for operating costs. That included $15,000 for the Bonnyville Curling Club, $126,840 for the Bonnyville Municipal Library, the Bonnyville and District Centennial Centre proposed $945,648, and the Bonnyville and District FCSS hope to see $43,445 in financial support.
The Bonnyville Regional Fire Authority (BRFA) requesting $370,883 to go toward contracted costs for fire, 911, and disaster services.
Requests from community organizations account for approximately $203,000.
That included a $50,000 ask from the Bonnyville and District SPCA for operating costs, $25,000 from the Bonnyville and District Chamber of Commerce, which included the price of the town’s membership and dollars for the operation of the visitor centre, $25,000 toward the mental health navigator for the Bonnyville Primary Care Network, and funding operations to the tune of $30,000 for the Bonnyville Historical Society.
According to CAO Mark Power, that was an increase from 2019, which rang in around $162,000.
Among the reasons for the increase are a $5,000 request from the Bonnyville Friendship Centre for their community kitchen, and a $20,000 ask from the Duclos School Playground Committee.
Sponsoring the Cold Lake Air Show to a tune of $12,000 was also a factor.
“The air show (contribution) was $10,000 for the last several years. Every second year there’s the air show, and then the other is the oil and gas show. The number remained consistent, and it just changed (this year),” Power explained.
Coun. Chad Colbourne suggested council stay as close to the 2019 spending as they can moving ahead.
“I think there’s a few of these that we can tweak a bit as far as getting closer to that number, but with that said I think there are some on here that are almost a must,” he explained. “I think we need to recognize that the SPCA, for instance again in my opinion, is a must. The historical society is a must, and the mental health navigator, I think those are a must.”
Town administration will bring back recommendations for future delilberation after council stressed their intention to keep spending in this area in line with last year.
Council also asked to see an outline of their overall spending on charity events.
“I know we get the quarterly report of the golf tournaments and that type of thing that we participate in, but if we could have a sheet of that for last year, just to see where we’re at for that as well,” noted Coun. Lorna Storoschuk.
Storoschuk stressed the municipality will have some hard decisions to make moving forward.
“With the loss of some our funding, we’re going to have to be quite diligent in looking at these and we might not be able to afford all of these asks.”
