OWL, community groups, may re-apply for gaming grant funding

Delta, B.C. – Delta’s OWL can again apply for provincial gaming grants, thanks to a partial reversal of recent funding cuts that left many community service groups without government funding. The $8 million now available for previously-excluded groups still comes from a smaller pool than 2009’s grant budget, but Delta South MLA Vicki Huntington says she is pleased wildlife conservation groups and others can once again apply.

“In Delta, even a little funding would go a long way towards helping OWL’s dedicated volunteers rehabilitate injured birds of prey, continue to teach thousands of local youth, and fulfill the government’s wildlife conservation mandate.  They do what the Province can’t – or won’t – for pennies on the dollar,” says Huntington.

$6 million is dedicated for BC’s previously-ineligible arts, culture and sports organizations, while $2 million is earmarked for BC’s environmental groups.

“Grass-roots groups such as OWL are enormously efficient and bring our communities together around a great cause.  If it wasn’t for the outstanding and generous support of many Deltans, OWL would have been unable to operate,” says Huntington.  In a recent interview with the Delta Optimist, OWL executive director Bev Day said: “We are literally surviving on public donations.”

Last spring, Huntington wrote to Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Minister Steve Thomson stressing the importance of funding wildlife rehabilitation centres – a need she saw echoed in the Community Gaming Grant Review Report released on Wednesday.  

“Skip Triplett’s report says it best,” says Huntington.  The report, completed in October but released just this week, notes the local benefits of grant funding: “Environmental stewardship, animal welfare, adult sports and adult arts groups help build vibrant, compassionate and cohesive communities with strong pride-of-place feelings. . . . Communities need these characteristics to attract and retain the businesses and workers BC needs for economic and social development.”

-30-

Contact:

Vicki Huntington
Office: 250-952-7596