City searching for new revenue sources

Ron Seymour 2009-06-19 Kelowna Daily Courier:

The City of Kelowna will try for a $4.5-million grant from the Western Economic Diversification agency to help fund a plan for reusing the old bridge pontoons as a new pier/breakwater. Kelowna‘s rising unemployment means the city now qualifies for grants distributed by the federal agency, David Graham, the city director of strategic initiatives, said. “With the economy worsening in Kelowna, we‘re eligible for the kind of grants that we wouldn‘t have had access to before,” he said Thursday. The cost of adapting the pontoons for a breakwater/pier around an expansion of the marina at the Kelowna Yacht Club is now pegged by city officials at $6 million. Previous estimates ranged from $2.5 million to more than $10 million. “There‘s been lots of refinement to the numbers as we‘ve looked more closely at the project, in terms of what could be done, and what should be done,” Graham said.

A proposal to be considered by council at Monday‘s meeting is to apply to Western Economic Diversification for a $4.5 million grant, and have the city budget $500,000. The value of work to be done by bridge contractor SNC Lavalin is put at $1 million, and consists of making 10 of the half-century old pontoons ready for use as a pier/breakwater. To qualify for a Western Economic Diversification grant, a community has to have experienced a 20 per cent rise in the number of people filing Employment Insurance claims. Between April and May, the number of EI claims in Kelowna rose 21 per cent, to 11,600. Western Economic Diversification plans to spend $120 million on recession-fighting stimulus grants in B.C during the next two years. The deadline for applications is next Friday.

Since the city would be competing with a wide range of other grant applicants, including private businesses, non-profit groups and even provincial ministries, Graham says it‘s far from certain that Kelowna‘s application would be approved: “We‘re hopeful, but not overly optimistic.” It‘s not known when decisions will be made on the grant applications. In the meantime, council will likely have to decide whether to proceed with the plan to re-use the pontoons. “With council‘s support, the pontoons could still be put into place this fall,” Graham said. “After that, the timing of the improvements to the pontoons, that would depend on the availability of funding.”
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Castanet May 26:
The numbers of people receiving E.I. benefits in the Okanagan has skyrocketed over the past 12 months. In March of 2008, 3,080 people in the Okanagan were receiving E.I. benefits. That number has jumped nearly 160% to 8,180 in March of this year. In Kelowna, those receiving unemployment benefits more than doubled from 1,630 a year ago to nearly 5,000 this year, an increase of 201.8%. Only Cranbrook had a larger increase among cities in British Columbia.
Penticton saw a 148.3% rise while the increase in Vernon was 108.2%.