| City council will push the provincial government to reinstate Community Lottery Boards, even though the government says it won’t revive the grant program.
Ald. Ray Jones, a former member of the local board that distributed Community Lottery Board (CLB) grant money in Calgary, says he has heard an outpouring of opposition to the decision to close CLBs. He adds that he doesn’t understand the government’s stance on the issue.
"One (provincial minister) says they’re not going to reinstate it, and the other says they’ll review it.... I guess it depends on which one you listen to," Jones says.
"We have a government now making $1.2 billion a year on gaming revenue and can, through CLB, put something back into the community."
He also had some harsh words for the process the government used to announce its decision – the cutbacks came just after community groups spent weeks preparing grant applications to meet the deadline.
"We (the Calgary CLB) were sitting in a meeting ready to review 340 applications and nobody did me the courtesy of telling me I don’t even exist anymore."
Jones questioned how the government could take away the grants after selling Albertans on VLTs by promising to return the revenue they generate to communities.
But Jody Korchinksi, a spokesperson for Alberta Gaming, says millions of dollars in gambling revenue is still available to community groups through programs like the Community Facility Enhancement Program and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. She adds that Gaming Minister Ron Stevens has committed to review those programs to make them more inclusive.
"The gaming revenue will continue to be returned to all communities and Albertans will still benefit," Korchinksi says. "We believe most groups receiving funds would be eligible under the six (existing) programs, however, not all groups are eligible, so that’s something the minister is looking at – expanding the existing programs."
That commitment wasn’t good enough for city council. At a meeting on April 8, council agreed to send a formal letter to Premier Ralph Klein asking for the reinstatement of CLBs.
The $50 million program represented about four per cent of the provincial government’s $1.2 billion gambling revenue. |
