More donation requests were approved in last night’s city council meeting, raising some questions over where to go from here. The city has essentially depleted their fund for donations, but some big events are still coming up that the city helps to fund every year. That includes things like Welcome to Timmins Night, and Multicultural Fest, and it’s still unclear if there are any funds set aside for those events.
Councillor Pat Bamford, who has been long warning about this, says he doesn’t know what the answer is at this point. He says the city is either going to have to start saying no to all future requests, or start to tap into their reserve fund. But, he says he hopes they don’t do that, because that amount can add up quickly.
Bamford says they have to slow the trend down, because taxpayers can’t afford it. He says if you look at the hundreds of charitable organizations in Timmins, and council giving on average $3000 to $5000 per night, that number can skyrocket into the millions.
Bamford says council has never done this process so openly before. He says they’re all good organizations doing great work, but they can’t base their decision on that because otherwise they would give money out to everyone.
The city is looking at changing how they donate to different organizations, but that won’t come into effect until next year.
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