Community Grants are anachronisms, designed to make the Citizens think that Council is supporting them. However there are downsides, especially in Cobourg. Firstly the ‘Tax-fighters’ hate them because they despise giving free money away to the detriment of their taxes. Secondly because of the tax-fighter’s influence the amount available for disbursement is paltry, in the big budget, consequently has little public impact. The upside is that the members of Council can boast they support the Community.

It is obvious that the public debate about the grants is negligible, after all seven comments to date on Cobourg News demonstrate that. <sarcasm>Perhaps in order to generate commentary one should suggest that a grant be given to the residents of the encampment!</sarcasm>

“OK Burd what would you do about Grants?” Well I would respond with: “Revamp the system!”

Take a substantial amount of the money generated by the Holdco dividend and the Northam rent – I suggest starting at $1 million (this would generate $50K per year and Council would still control the Capital) and set up a Community Trust Fund. This fund would be governed by Citizens who would be independent of Council and elected by the Citizens. Council would be allowed to appoint a couple of non-voting Board members who would report and liaise to Council.

This idea would be good in that Cobourg would have a larger amount of money to distribute amongst the many groups vying for them to either give out larger grants or give to more organisations. The downside is twofold – it would infuriate the tax-fighters and also would not be supported by some Council members as they would lose control of the Patronage. The upside is again twofold – A Board of Citizens closer to the Citizenry would be more impartial than a gang of Politicians, with their public agendas, in the disbursement of the annual grants and as the process would be less formal the applicants would feel more comfortable in making their applications.

Just my two cent Rebuttal