City turns down North Peace Justice Society’s request for letter of support

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — City Council has regretfully declined to send a letter in support for the North Peace Justice Society, after the organization was turned down or a community gaming grant.

The Ministry of Finance’s Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch turned down their application for a grant because of errors by the Society regarding organizational structure, guidelines and financial reporting.

Councillor Dan Davies brought up the organization’s situation at the regular council meeting on February 9, and asked that a letter of support request be added to the next agenda.

The request was for a letter of support from the City to include in a submission being sent to the Ministry of Finance, asking for them to reconsider the decision.

However, the City says their voice in a letter of support on this matter likely wouldn’t influence anything.

“Due to the types of errors in the documentation provided by the Society for the application and not responding to Ministry requests for additional information, it is unlikely that a letter of support from the City would result in the Ministry reconsidering their decision,” an administrative report to Council reads.

City Council has provided a grant-in-aid to the Justice Society for many years, and allocated $20,251 for the organization this year. Councillor Byron Stewart said the amount they donate to the Society says enough about how much the City supports them.

“There were errors made by this organization,” he said. “I think this organization would be better served by getting the letters from our RCMP, from our crown counsel, from our MLA, who is very aware of the cost-savings that this program does for the province.”

“We shouldn’t be involved in the mistakes that were made, but my absolute fear comes down to it being denied, the group folding, and its actually us — our community — that suffers from that group not being here,” said C0uncillor Trevor Bolin.

“If they lose their gaming grant, they lose their second-largest funder behind us.”

The grant guidelines are available on the Ministry’s website.