The Village of Telkwa may be creating a new position thanks to a grant from the Northern Development Initiative’s (NDI) Economic Development Fund.
The bad news is, the funding was originally applied for to use towards several infrastructure projects. New guidelines leave the funding available for only very specific purposes, which don’t include infrastructure.
“It’s such a narrow window to draw on that you have to scratch your head and wonder, what are you going to use it for?” said Mayor Carmen Graf at a recent council meeting.
However, extra funding of $30,000 could be used along with a $7,500 grant to hire a grant writer to create a contracted Community Development position. Councillor Taylor Bachrach said he was in favour of creating a job with the funding, but not just for the community and economic development work that would result.
“It will free up staff to do other non-economic development activity,” he said.
Councillor Rimas Zitkauskas also pointed out that the position could cover some initiatives from the Village’s Official Community Plan and Integrated Community Sustainability Plan.
“The ICSP has set some pretty aggressive standards for us,” he said.
Council voted to work further on possibly creating a new job position with the funding, combining the grant writer funding and the economic development funds from NDI.
Another grant of $5,000 was available for partnered initiatives with another municipality, NDI or First Nations.
After some debate, council agreed to put $1,000 towards a Local Business Retention and Expansion Toolkit, in partnership with NDI. Another $2,000 was directed to the B.C. Business Counts initiative, in partnership with the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako.
The remaining $2,000 was earmarked towards the K’san Performing Arts group, which was invited to perform in Chengdu, China, at the International Festival of Intangible Cultural Heritage this summer, as well as several other cultural exchange events in China.
“I feel we should support this somehow as a show of good faith,” said Councillor Jim Hiltz.
The First Nations partnership should allow the Village to direct the funds to the K’san Performing Arts group to help cover the costs of their trip to Asia.