Vaughn Palmer: Support package for forest workers comes at a price — B.C. Rural Dividend fund
Credit to Author: Stephen Snelgrove| Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2019 01:08:44 +0000
VICTORIA — When cabinet minister Doug Donaldson announced a $69-million support package for displaced forest workers, he didn’t mention it would be paid for in part by suspending $25 million in grants to develop the rural economy.
Donaldson, who is cabinet minister for both forests and rural development, confined the bad news to a letter sent out to hundreds of applicants for grants under the B.C. Rural Dividend. The dividend was established under the previous B.C. Liberal government to “strengthen and diversify” the local economy in communities of 25,000 people or less.
Since 2016, the program has provided $73 million in grants to more than 500 communities, organizations, First Nations and other applicants to develop business plans, develop tourist attractions and build local infrastructure. The budget for this year was $25 million and applications closed Aug. 15.
All that was put on hold as of the letter Donaldson sent out Thursday. But the minister had to beat around the bush a bit before letting the applicants in on the secret.
“Government is taking action to address the near-term needs of workers, contractors and communities through $69 million in programming,” declared Donaldson, repeating what he’d announced publicly in Prince George on Tuesday of last week. “Mayors, chiefs and councillors from across the region have told me that assisting workers, contractors and small businesses impacted by the industry transition is the essential first step in stabilizing forest communities.”
They’d been urging action since spring, when mills began closing or reducing production in their communities. Now, finally, the government was providing money to encourage early retirement, retraining and relocation for workers. And there would also be something for hard-hit communities.
“Interior communities addressing a permanent closure will receive $100,000, communities addressing an indefinite full-facility closure will receive $75,000 and communities dealing with a shift reduction will have access to a pool of funding to provide defined services for impacted community members.”
Finally, in the sixth paragraph of Thursday’s letter, Donaldson got around to announcing the trade-off that was the real news of the day: “Funding this essential programming for impacted workers has required that we temporarily reallocate funding in the Rural Dividend Program.”
The first $5 million in the budget for the dividend program will be diverted to the aforementioned community grants. The remaining $20 million will help pay for retraining and other support for the displaced workers.
As for the “temporarily” part of the announcement, the program has been put on hold for the rest of this year and into the next.
“All applications received in this fiscal year’s intake period are suspended until further notice in order to support workers and communities in the Interior as they face an unprecedented situation in the forestry-sector economy,” said the Donaldson letter.
The intake period, as mentioned above, ended Aug. 15. So all the applications were already in. Which isn’t to say they were headed for the government shredder. Rather: “Applications submitted in the 2019 intake period will be retained for vetting and funding consideration at a future date.”
When I spoke to Donaldson on Monday he confirmed that the ministry had received 338 applications in all for the B.C. Rural Dividend.
“I know folks put a lot of work into these applications,” he conceded. “They are going to be disappointed.”
He expects to hear some of that disappointment this week. Donaldson is attending the annual convention of Union of B.C. Municipalities in Vancouver and so, likely, will some of the disappointed mayors and councillors.
His letter to the applicants tried to soften the blow of the suspension.
“I recognize the importance of this program and the services it supports. Staff are working with colleagues across other ministries to identify options for alternative funding, with an emphasis on community economic development and diversification.
“I am aware of the effort that goes into preparing and submitting proposals and recognize that applicants will be disappointed with needing to defer projects to a future funding date. Projects funded through previous intake periods are unaffected by this reallocation. All funded applicants are encouraged to continue to implement projects and complete the necessary reporting requirements.”
Donaldson says the intention is to simply roll over this year’s applications into next year’s grant program. The government has already budgeted up to $25 million in rural dividends for 2020 as well.
But this year’s applicants tallied $35-million worth of requests, according to Donaldson: “The program is always oversubscribed.”
Sounds as if next year will be even worse, with two years’ worth of applications chasing one year’s worth of funding.
Instead of disappointing all those applicants, why didn’t the New Democrats take the $25 million out of contingency funds? Finance Minister Carole James already raided the fund by $300 million this month to keep her budget in surplus. But that still left $450 million.
“This is a cross-government approach to a new initiative,” Donaldson explained. “We want to be careful managers of public funds.”
A defensible move if done upfront.
But first the New Democrats arranged a bunch of positive news coverage by announcing the support package for displaced forest workers. Then, two days later, they broke the bad news in a private letter to applicants about the program that would be cancelled to pay for the good news.
That suggests they aren’t so much careful managers as sneaky ones.