SASKATOON – Hospitals running overcapacity, a predicted surged in patient volumes in January, pending jobs cuts and now this. The Saskatoon Health Region (SHR) has scraped its community grant program this fiscal year because of budget constraints, leaving handfuls of organizations scrambling to find funding for programs they say are paramount to a healthy community.
On Thursday, community-based organizations held a press conference to sound the alarm about grant cuts they say assistant in delivering programs to those who need it most.
“When you need to make cuts you may as well go for the low hanging fruit right,” said Vanessa Charles with the Saskatoon Anti-Poverty Coalition.
“It always seems to me the poor people, poverty are always the first to suffer.”
Approximately $200,000 in grants, now gone said the group, as SHR finds ways to make up a $45-million deficit.
“$200,000 that would probably not pay for one mid-level management position and yet if you look at the impact it has in the community and how it is leveraged it is worth a lot more than $200,000 to the community,” said Barb Macpherson, executive director with YWCA Saskatoon, who says the organization has accessed the funding on at least three occasions.
READ MORE: Saskatoon Health Region to slash jobs to offset $45 million deficit
On the Saskatoon Health Region website under the community grant program section, this message appears:
“We sincerely regret any inconvenience this has caused, however the Saskatoon Health Region is not accepting applications for the Community Grant Program at this time.”
To pour salt on the wound, organizations say they heard whispers of grant cuts as early as Nov. 17 and things were slowly pulled from the region’s website. They alleged they didn’t receive official word of the cuts until the 25th, just two days before grant deadlines.
“They are in an emergency situation and they were moving quickly and I understand that but you need to take the time at least to communicate it a little bit better and a little bit more respectful way.”
Bevin Bradley with SCYAP says the organization was hoping for $20,000 in assistance from SHR that would have gone towards a free after school drop-in program for clients.
“It’s really last minute so we’re looking at other funding opportunities and working harder than we were before which is difficult which like many non-profits we don’t have a surplus of staff and we’re working all the time for developing and keeping the projects running.”
READ MORE: Many concerned about upcoming Saskatoon Health Region cuts
Up to 4o groups with a focus on health prevention and saving the system money in the long-run could be impacted as a result of these cuts. All are left with more questions than answers as they call for the money to be reinstated.
“I understand that there are higher acuity situations that seem to be more of priority but the problem is we never address it before it becomes an acute problem, those acute problems are always going to be there and we end up in this cycle,” said Carrie Pratt, a Next Up participant.
“I just like to know what is your strategy and why do thing it’s a good idea to remove this funding from people who really, really need it in our communities.”
Global News reached out to the Saskatoon Health Region for comment and was told interim president and CEO Andrew Will was unavailable for an in-person interview.
He did however issue a statement regarding the community grants program and its discontinuation for this fiscal year.
“Saskatoon Health Region values our partnerships with community groups. Considering our current financial position, we regretfully are not able to award funding for community grants at this time. In the past, community grants have been provided on a one-time basis.”
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