YORKTON - Imagine finding out a source of some 20 per cent of your annual budget has suddenly disappeared.
The reaction has to be one of sheer panic because that is a huge hit to funding and it is difficult to even consider it might happen.
But that is exactly the situation facing BGC Yorkton, (many will know it better as the Boys and Girls Club, but now under a new name), as they received some grant funding news which has the organization reeling.
After receiving funding through the federal Canada Summer Jobs Program in 2024, they have been informed they will receive no dollars this year, explained Lorraine Oranchuk, CEO of BGC Yorkton.
“Last year we had seven full-time positions that were supported – this year we’re down to zero,” she said in a recent Yorkton This Week interview.
Oranchuk said the loss in funding without forewarning has put the organization in a difficult position, with youth already registered for summer programming, and parents expecting their children have a place to be in the summer, and now funding support for those running programs gone.
Now to be fair an organization should not just assume grant dollars are a forever thing.
That said though, a body such as Canada Summer Jobs Program needs to be aware their funding if often critical to organizations such as BGC Yorkton, so they should be careful how they deal with such funding.
To start funding for such programming really should be set for three-to-five year terms which would allow for better planning by an organization such as BGC Yorkton, and it has to solidify budgets for the funding agency too.
Now while funding cuts may well be required for any of a variety of reasons, when dealing with community service, not-for-profit groups the cuts need to be made with months of forewarning – again to allow budgeting and program adjustments, and frankly the cuts should never be 100 per cent in one cut. Phasing in a cut over two-or-three years would be much more digestible.
We should expect better of a funding agency such as Canada Summer Jobs Program.
Then there is the secondary question of why the cut?
If it is because Canada Summer Jobs Program has less dollars then the cuts such be representative of their funding loss. If the program has 20 per cent less dollars to dole out then it would make sense to trim all grants 20 per cent.
If the program is awarding the same dollars then a group such as BGC Yorkton should be told why they are no longer worthy of 100 per cent of the grant they had received – apparently now headed somewhere else.
While one can easily imagine a along list of worthy programs seeking dollars to fund summer jobs, it is also difficult to imagine any more worthy than BGC Yorkton given the supports and programs they provide for local youth, and we know how important youth programming is.
The situation has left the local BGC scrambling to find a way to maintain programming Oranchuk said they see as critical to provide.
“We’re not going to leave these families behind,” she said in the YTW interview, adding demand for the summer program in huge.
This year people were lined up two hours ahead of registration opening, and the 50 spots “were filled in 11 minutes.” After adding 19 to a wait list, Oranchuk said they quit taking names because “we didn’t want to give false hope.”
So this summer staff will be hired, and the program will be maintained, as the organization works on finding dollars.
As a result BGC Yorkton has gone public with a plea for help, which is understandable, but also another case of something forced on the group by what in essence is an off-loading of funding from a higher level of government to the local community.
Oranchuk said any donation large or small is welcome as they try to deal with the financial shortfall, and still provide programming, adding not offering summer spots is simply not an option.
It is now in the community’s hands, but it is also something that should be questioned by our local representatives to either help re-secure funding, or at least understand why it was cut.
