The Town of Bonnyville recently applied to provincial government for funding requests. Part of the process in the past was ensuring that forms were filled out correctly and were in good order. The town spent a lot of time researching the grants and ensuring that the forms were filled out properly before sending the applications away for approval. It was later discovered that the provincial government went on a first-come-first-serve bases, causing the town to miss out on important funding.
Mayor of Bonnyville, Gene Sobolewski explains the grants the town applied for were to encourage partnerships “to set up things like our inter-municipal water and sewer agreement, our IDP (inter-municipal development plans) between ourselves and the MD talking about our fringe areas, water and our sustainability governance in the regional water and what’s that going to look like.”
Mayor Sobolewski says that not only was the town not successful in receiving the grant funding this time around, but the town has been notified that they will not be place in a que for the next set of grant funding. Sobolewski states, “we’re not the only ones who were just a tad upset.” Noting that it wasn’t just being rejected, “it was how it (the grant application process) was presented to us and how it ended up being awarded.” Meaning that instead of determining funding from the applications it was determined in a first-come-first-serve-bases.
Mayor Sobolewski says the town approached the MD of Bonnyville after being rejected from the province and the MD has stepped up and agreed to help with the funding of the projects. Mayor Sobolewski says the MD really came through for the town, “kudos to them because the have stepped up to the plate in supporting us on some of those programs”, such as the water and sewer lines, benefit the region as well as the town.