June
24, 2002
$156
million is a lot of money. In fiscal year 1999-2000 that
is how much was distributed to 4,832 charities from the
proceeds of charitable gaming. The Campbell government
has since frozen the distributions and is changing the
rules. Thousands of volunteers are in a state of panic.
There is nothing on the government's
gaming website about the freeze or about the document
titled "Tentative Changes to Direct Access".
A
full list of the 4,832 charities and how much each received
is available from a government website at http://www.bcgc.gov.bc.ca/afr/yr_9900/TOC.html.
The site has not been updated with the distribution of
funds since Premier Campbell assumed power, but the 1999-2000
information gives a good overview of the distribution
before the freeze.
A leaked
copy of "Tentative Changes to Direct Access" is
now making the rounds by fax. It says that eligibility criteria
will be changed so as to eliminate hospital, medial or health
care facilities; hospital foundations or auxiliaries; education
institutes or schools; day care or preschools and any other
organizations where "its funding requirement is mandated
by statue". Under the proposed changes organizations
that provide "community benefit" will become eligible
for grants rather than the old criteria of organizations
with "charitable or religious purposes". The new
criteria are silent on who determines "community benefit".
One
of the most alarming proposed changes provides that "An
organization may be eligible if it has a voluntary and broad-based
membership involved in the management and control of the
organization and activities, and if its volunteers establish,
maintain, and deliver the organization's programs."
Under the new criteria a charity that looks after children
and hires professional staff to work with kids would not
be eligible because the service is not delivered by
volunteers. Parents of learning disabled children who previously
received charitable gaming grants and hired professional
staff to help their kids will no longer qualify. Hundreds
of "parents advisory committees" (PACs) will no
longer qualify. Tens of millions of dollars that used to
help real charities will be cut off by the Campbell government.
A reader
of StrategicThoughts.com said it best by suggesting "Upon
completion of the Province of British Columbia's Core Services
Review it has been determined that if you are poor, aged,
infirm, lame, deaf or blind, you do not meet the criteria
of cost effectiveness necessary to be resident of this province.
Therefore, please consider this your notice that your duties
as a citizen will no longer be required. However, if you
are rich, well educated, and in good health, or very rich,
educated, and in reasonable health, or extremely rich and
we don't care about your health, you can pay for it yourself
someplace else, we will welcome you with open arms."
Click
on the 1999-2000 report (830K word
document) to see the kinds of organizations that are
being cut off by the Campbell government. Probably out of
fear of being cut off most have not spoken out. Those that
have spoken out have received little news coverage. Soon
they will hear the bad news and will no longer have anything
to lose by criticizing the government that in opposition
pretended to be the champion of charities. Before it
is too late the thousands of volunteers in over 4,000 charities
need to contact their MLAs and let the government know that
BC does have a place for those who are "poor, aged,
infirm, lame, deaf or blind".
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