There certainly is a fluctuation ... government revenues fluctuate upwards, while grants to community groups fluctuate downwards!
On Wednesday December 7th, Peter Fassbender (Minister of
Community, Sport and Cultural Development) released information about on-going,
and up-coming, changes it was making to the Community Gaming Program. He
stated:
“I want to thank the
Office of the Auditor General for completing their thorough performance audit
of our Community Gaming Grants program. I am pleased that the audit found
government has a suitable framework in place to administer the program, and we
recognize that improvements are needed in some key areas.
“The report outlines 10
recommendations, including the development of a performance management
framework, and to evaluate the approach used in assessing applications.
Government accepts all 10 recommendations."
A brief summary, and history, of gaming and
gambling in British Columbia
reminds us that:
- up to 1969 public gambling / gaming was illegal in Canada
- then in the 1970s non-profit organizations were able to generate gaming revenue through licenses for bingos and raffles ... as well as sell lottery tickets for a sales commission
- the B.C. Gaming Commission, responsible for developing provincial gaming policy and regulating and licensing gaming events, was created in 1987
- over the next 10 years several reviews were completed, and a number of changes put in place. One of these was the end of charitable gambling licenses for casinos. Instead, direct access grants were established to replace the lost revenue that organizations had earned from operating charitable casinos. Bingo affiliation grants were combined with direct access grants in 2010 to form the Community Gaming Grants program that exists today
As the
government itself states:
In 1999, following the changes to
gaming policy, the Government of British
Columbia, the BC Bingo Council and the B.C.
Association for Charitable Gaming signed a Memorandum of Agreement to govern
the parties’ actions until legislation was passed.
The memorandum set out a formula,
giving charitable organizations one-third of government net community casino
gaming revenue, with a minimum of $125 million indexed to inflation.
So how
has that worked out for community groups, across the province?
Well I
can tell you that in the past five fiscal years alone (2011/12 to 2015/16) the
total government dollars handed out, through the Community Gaming Grants
Program, have DECREASED by nearly one hundred and fifty thousand dollars! That goes hand in hand with the total number
of grants, handed out to community groups, also decreasing from 5,260 to 4,981.
Perhaps
not a large number, but consider this ... in the same five year fiscal period,
total government revenues from gaming (after paying out all expenses) has
increased by one-hundred-and-ninety-six million.
The
government itself has stated that this program, approved in the provincial
government’s annual budget, "has
fluctuated over the years".
Well
there certainly is a fluctuation ... government revenues fluctuate upwards,
while grants to community groups fluctuate downwards! From information I have sourced from BC
government media releases / BC Lottery Corporation, you can see for yourself
the correlation between increasing government revenue --- and steadily decreasing
grants to community groups and organizations.
First,
here are total government revenues from gaming, alongside net income:
Revenues ($ Billion) Net Income ($ Billion)
2015 / 16 3.102 1.303
2014 / 15 2.904 1.254
2013 / 14 2.808 1.175
2012 / 13 2.732 1.125
2011 / 12 2.701 1.107
Next,
let's take a look at the number of grants over the past five fiscal years,
along with the total dollar figures of those grants, and then match it up with
Net Revenues:
Fiscal Year Number of Grants Value of Grants BCLC
Net Income ($)
2015/16 4,981 $134,836,249 $1.303
billion
2014/15 4,979 $134,917,800 $1.524 billion
2013/14 5,024 $134,913,420 $1.175 billion
2012/13 5,037 $134,916,250 $1.125 billion
2011/12 5,260 $134,983,942 $1.107 billion
So if
you're still with me, the total number of grants made to community groups and
organizations has decreased by 279 ... the dollar value of those grants has
been reduced by just under $150,000 ... and all the while the net revenues from
gaming in BC have increased by $196,000,000.
For a
moment, let's go back to the media release from December 7th:
“We look forward to
delivering improvements to the Community Gaming Grants program, including a
revitalized focus on customer service, so that not-for-profit organizations
throughout the province can continue to benefit from the program’s $135 million
in annual funding.”
All I can
say is, it's abundantly clear that while the BC Liberal government continues to
strip more and more money from British Columbians, through every increasing
schemes for new lottery games and casino expansion, the community groups and
organizations that should be benefiting, are instead being shortchanged
hundreds of millions every year.
Who do
you think should be the recipients of the increased revenue? I know who Christy Clark and the BC Liberal
government think should be ... and it's certainly not community non-profit
groups and organizations.
In Kamloops, I'm Alan
Forseth.
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