Following a long, convoluted discussion, Jan. 21, council passed a motion that will see the Reuse-It Centre receive financial support for 2014, allowing the doors to remain open for at least one more year.
The drawn out, complicated debate was the result of an issue of process.
Late last year, council received a business plan and request for $10,000 from the Jasper Environmental Stewardship Society鈥攖he non-profit that runs the centre鈥攖o go toward the 2014 operations of the secondhand shop.
That request came after council indicated it would like to see a business plan from the society, in order to gauge how the centre is fairing overall and whether a financial request was something the municipality would be seeing each year for the foreseeable future.
But, prior to that request being made, $9,000 had already been earmarked in the operations budget for the Environmental Stewardship Program鈥攁 program funded by both the municipality and Parks Canada. That budget, however, had not yet been approved in its entirety, as council chose to approve an interim budget Dec. 17, in order for further deliberations to take place.
The two requests, one from the society and the other in the stewardship budget, muddied the waters for the mayor and council, who were left wondering if the $10,000 request was over and above what was already in the environmental stewardship budget.
Things were then further complicated, Jan. 21, when the renewal of the memorandum of understanding for the Environmental Stewardship Program was up for decision. That MOU will lock Parks and the municipality in a financial agreement for the next five years, including 2014, and lists what the monetary amount will be for each of those years.
鈥淚t occurs to me,鈥� said Mayor Richard Ireland, 鈥渢hat this discussion is moot if we approve this MOU, because we are going to in any event provide $82,500 as our contribution to environmental stewardship and [part] of that [funding] is a gift to the Reuse-It society to run the centre.鈥�
Although this realization raised some concerns for council鈥攁s council wouldn鈥檛 have further say in what Janet Cooper, the environmental stewardship coordinator, spent her budget on鈥攖he memorandum of understanding was eventually passed, with Ireland and Couns. Gilbert Wall and Brian Nesbitt voting in favour, and Couns. Rico Damota and Helen Kelleher-Empey voting against the motion. (Couns. Vonna Arsenault and Dwain Wacko were absent.)
Following that decision, council then discussed the request from the Jasper Environmental Stewardship Society, and four out of five members voted in favour of a motion to support the Reuse-It Centre, using the funds already identified in the stewardship budget. Damota was opposed, saying he felt the centre was competing with the private sector: the Jasper Buy, Sell and Trade store beneath the Dollar Store.
鈥淚 personally don鈥檛 like doing things as a municipality that compete with the private sector,鈥� he said, noting that he feels the store and Buy and Sell Facebook page are filling the community鈥檚 need for secondhand goods in Jasper.
The Reuse-It Centre was created in 2012 in order to divert waste from the landfill and to meet the need of seasonal workers to furnish and equip their new homes with necessary household items. At that time, Cooper presented to council鈥攔equesting $65,000 be released from environmental stewardship reserves for seed money鈥攚ith the understanding that the centre would be self-sustaining by the end of two years. Following that, a society was created to run the centre and the storefront was set up in the Stan Wright Industrial Park.
In that location, the rent was high and the manager was working 35 hours a week. That became unsustainable, so the centre relocated to the Anglican Church basement in July 2013.
The move cut costs substantially, as did the reduction in hours to 15 for the manager, bringing the monthly deficit down by more than $2,000 in the first month.
But even with that substantial reduction in costs, the centre continues to carry a deficit of about $1,000 a month, making it unsustainable without further funding.
As things stand, council鈥檚 support relies on the environmental stewardship committee鈥攎embers of the public, the chief administrative officer for the municipality, a councillor and a Parks employee鈥攁pproving the work plan for the program.
Council directed Peter Waterworth, the town鈥檚 chief administrative officer, to support the plan鈥檚 inclusion of funds for the Reuse-It Centre.
Nicole Veerman
[email protected]
