A Sooke councillor wonders if the district would be better off following the beat of its own drum when it comes to supporting local arts.
Sooke has provided funds to the Capital Regional District to support, celebrate and promote not-for-profit organizations since 2019.
The amount provided was $34,474 in the first year, $35,865 in 2020, $37,574 in 2021, $41,252 in 2022, and $43,508 for this year.
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Coun. Dana Lajeunesse raised the issue of whether Sooke is getting the best value for the money at a recent council meeting.
“I want to stress that by no means do I wish to disparage the efforts of the CRD arts commission, the work of the CRD arts council or CRD staff,” Lajeunesse, Sooke’s representative on the CRD arts and cultural support service committee, said in a follow-up interview with the Sooke News Mirror. “They all do excellent work, and I’m more than happy to continue to work with them. I just want to ensure we’re getting the best bang for our buck.”
His said his focus is on looking after the needs of Sooke’s residents and strengthening local organizations.
“I think the arts are often overlooked by some as a key pillar in the development of a healthy local economy, especially one that relies heavily on tourism to bring investment into the community.”
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Lajeunesse points out that the district’s community grants program, which has an annual budget of $65,000, heard from 30 applicants last week, many with an arts focus requesting a total of $150,000, which for the most part are all very worthy causes.
“Council generally tries to accommodate as many of these meaningful causes as possible, and with some creative accounting from our finance department, we can usually find some additional funding from council contingency, and for the past couple of years from the COVID Safe Restart funds we received from the province,” he noted. “However, there is a finite amount of COVID funding left, much of it we would like to allocate toward other investments such as creating a public plaza on Lot A.”
That has led Lajeunesse to consider whether the funding currently directed to CRD arts programs could be dealt with better in house, which would require further discussion with council.
He also plans to approach CRD arts at the next meeting about whether some mentoring is available so local Sooke groups would be better positioned to compete for funding.
“I want to make sure enough money is coming back to local groups,” Lajeunesse said. “We have some very talented people in Sooke I don’t want to see overlooked due to a lack of administrative capacity competing with larger groups in other parts of the region.”
Chris Gilpin, Manager of CRD arts and culture support service, said he has been in discussion with Lajeunesse, and noted that there have been many grants to Sooke organizations.
He said that discussing how to improve services, especially in ways that would benefit rural areas, including Sooke, is an important focus.
“We just launched an engagement survey where residents and organizations in the region can provide input for our next strategic plan,” Gilpin said. “We want to make sure there are no barriers to applying for grants and prioritize benefits to groups in rural regions.”
The current strategic plan was in effect from 2020 to 2023, with the next plan aimed at guiding the goals and initiatives of the service from 2014 to 2017.
To take part in the survey, visit getinvolved.crd.bc.ca/arts-strategic-plan. Check out 2021artandcultureprogressreport-web.pdf (crd.bc.ca) for more information on grant recipients.
“We encourage all Sooke residents to send us their feedback through the online survey,” Gilpin added.
The deadline to respond to the survey is May 24 at 11:55 p.m.
CRD Arts and Culture was founded in 2021 to support arts and culture for the purpose of benefiting the capital region.
More than $2.5 million is distributed yearly to more than 90 non-profit art organizations through five grant programs. The service is funded by Saanich, Victoria, Oak Bay, Esquimalt, View Royal, Highlands, Metchosin, Sooke, and the Southern Gulf Islands.
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