The Town of Vermilion Council has approved the allocation of up to $20,000 for the Vermilion Public Library and up to $10,000 for the Vermilion and District Housing Foundation to be funded from the Provincial government’s Municipal Operating Support Transfer (MOST) Grant.
According to the Alberta government website www.alberta.ca/municipal-operating-support-transfer, municipalities have experienced significant financial impacts due to the COVID-19 pandemic and therefore are offering funding support through MOST which is provided by the Government of Alberta and the Government of Canada as part of the Safe Restart Agreement.
MOST funding must be spent on eligible expenses incurred between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021 and Vermilion’s allocation amount is $425,000.
“The Town of Vermilion will be applying on behalf of the Vermilion Public Library for funds under the MOST program. Under this program approval was required by the Council to apply for funding for both the Vermilion Public Library and the Vermilion and District Housing Foundation,” said Brian Leibel, Director of Finance & Administration for the Town of Vermilion.
Leibel also noted that Municipal Affairs will either approve or deny individual expenditures of the Library or Housing Foundation following an audit of submitted invoices to determine whether or not the expenditures are eligible.
“Once Municipal Affairs approves the funds they will be forwarded to the Library and Housing Foundation,” commented Leibel. He went on to say, “It is approved in the sense that the Town of Vermilion would need to approve the application, but there is still a chance that all or part of the application may not be funded, we still have to remit a final report along with invoices as well as receive confirmation from the province.”
George Rogers, CAO for the Town of Vermilion says the grant is to help Municipalities that have incurred unforeseen costs in areas such as additional cleaning, installing protective barriers, purchases of Personal Protective Equipment and additional IT (equipment and software) to enable working from home and to broadcast Council meeting to the public.
“Also we have lost significant amounts of revenue due to the closure of facilities like our Arenas and the Vermilion Regional Centre,” noted Rogers.
Rogers also explained that the maximum for the Town is $425,000 but that all applications have to meet an eligibility criteria so they may not be able to claim the maximum amount, but said, “It is encouraging is that the program allows limited community agencies in the town to also access these funds.”
According to Rogers the Town of Vermilion intends to apply for funding to cover the additional cost incurred by the Town for conference technology, work from home technology, the additional cost of cleaning, additional PPE as well as lost revenues including recreation, building permits and Goodlife Institute events.
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