Texada Grant-in-Aid: Summary

Texada’s volunteer community groups provide much of the social cohesiveness that makes our community a truly great place to live. By my count there were at least 17 such groups on our island in 2025.

But there’s a problem: the qRD budget to support these groups hasn’t significantly increased in decades, but the number and scope of community services provided by these volunteer groups has clearly outgrown that limited funding. Add an element of inherent favoritism in how the funds are distributed, and something has to change.

We can fix this with a Service Review — of which more below.

Discussion
Volunteers can make or break a small community. Texada is very lucky to have so many dedicated volunteers providing us with wonderful activities, events and services throughout the year. As noted above, there were at least 17 such groups on Texada as of 2025.

But here’s the problem: These groups need more funding from qRD, especially to support their core operating expenses. The amount given to a specific group varies according to the Texada Director’s whim — so it’s not always equitable. Sometimes funds are left over, which happens due to restrictive qRD eligibility rules and lack of communication about the grants. qRD sucks any leftover Texada tax dollars into the regional Grant-in-Aid budget, which Texadans also separately pay into each year. This
relatively recent money-grab policy by qRD should be reversed, so our tax dollars for local services stay on Texada, and we don’t let qRD tax us twice for regional services.

My proposed solution: I propose that funding for Texada’s volunteer community groups be increased to cover their core operating costs at up to 100% of actual need on a three-year renewable basis, so that volunteers can focus on their mission to serve the community instead of constantly getting caught in a grant-writing/fundraising treadmill. This is already being done in at least one case on Texada, but it could be expanded.

Any funds left over each year should then stay with the Texada Grant-in-Aid program to be rolled over into subsequent years or accumulated for capital equipment purchases.

How to pay for this proposal without raising taxes? Answer: a simple change in budget priorities — with a little help from a formal Service Review initiated by the Texada Director. Texada Airport’s bloated annual requisition limit of up to $200,000/year can be drastically reduced, possibly by at least half, and the savings then shared between Texada Grant-in-Aid (currently limited to $19,000/year), Texada Rescue/First Responders (currently limited to $15,000/year) and maybe even we Texada taxpayers, who might be taxed less than today.

Let’s take a closer look at this situation:

A better name for qRD’s “Area D Grant-in-Aid” service would be “Texada Community Group Grant Funding.” As noted above, Texadans pay taxes to support two Grant-in-Aid programs: our local, Texada-only fund, and a qathet regional fund. Recent examples of Texada community groups that have received local grants, some every year and some irregularly:

Texada Arts, Culture and Tourism Society (TACT) — grants provide stable funding on a three-year basis to support Aviation Week & Fly-In, Ceramics Studio, Art Studio Tour, Run-the-Rock, and more;

Texada Island Non-Profit Seniors Housing Society (TINSHES) — annual grants support the new Texada senior housing project in Gillies Bay — and in 2026 TINSHES also received regional Grant-in-Aid funding;

Texada Island Community Society (TICS) — annual grants support Sandcastle Weekend, Texada Food Bank, bursaries for Texada students, Texada Express Lines and Phone Directory, annual holiday season community dinner, and more;

Texada Agriculture Group (TAG) — irregular grants support Texada Food Hub’s new “Full Pantry Initiative” and TAG’s overall mission of local food security and sovereignty. The Hub is a 24-hour-a-day service staffed entirely by volunteers. As more people begin using the Hub’s five new freeze-dryers and other equipment, TAG expects basic operating costs and administrative hours will increase, requiring additional funding to meet community food provisioning needs;

Texada Dragon Boat Club — irregular grants support the revived Canada Day celebration at Shelter Point Park, sponsored by our island’s recreational paddling team and grant funding;
Rock Your Body dance group — irregular grants support the group’s bi-weekly dance program with mental and physical health benefits for Texadans, year-round.

qRD prefers each grant recipient group to be incorporated as a registered non-profit society and that each group limit its request to 25% or less of its actual need. But qRD’s Board of Directors reserves the right to ignore its own rules, particularly when it decides how much to give a group. In some cases the Board chooses to provide a group with considerably more than 25% of “need,” and in some cases considerably less. “Need” is in quotes because the dollar amount needed by a group is subjective –it’s determined by that group, as one would expect.

When I say “the Board chooses” how much to give a group, what really happens is that the Texada Director chooses who gets how much, and the rest of the Directors rubber-stamp our Director’s funding distribution. So if the Texada Director thinks that a particular group should have full funding of its operating needs, then that group will be spared having to spend time and effort on fundraising to make up the difference between 25% and 100% of its need. The favoured few can then focus on fulfilling their community service mission rather than diverting much of their time and energy into
fundraising drives just to stay alive.

The 2026 budget for Texada Grant-in-Aid was about $19,000, and this year it got split six ways so that none of the groups who applied for a grant received the amount they requested. Why? Because the total need for these groups was considerably more than $19,000. So if we use a Service Review to shave $100,000 off the airport budget and reallocate it between Texada Grant-in-Aid and Texada Rescue, we’ll be making a positive, tangible difference in people’s lives and building a stronger community at the same time.