Community Futures is seeking support in modernization of its program by way of a petition.
The petition calls for the public to support four recommendations that were sent to the federal minister of Science and Economic Development in March 2017. The recommendations include modernization of the Community Futures Program, appropriate, equitable and stable program funding, integrated program policy development and evaluation and collaboration in federal program delivery.
Becky Cianflone, general manager of Community Futures Greenstone said that Community Futures in western Canada hasn’t had a funding increase in nine years.
“The situation is getting to be more precarious all the time,” said Cianflone.
“The cost of everything else has gone up. What we’re seeing is that almost all of the Community Futures offices used to have four or five full-time staff, and now they are doing to having three full-time staff with sometimes a fourth part-time person. Our major function is to manage all the loan portfolios and make sure we’re chasing after the money loaned out and supporting the loan clients. The piece that has been cut from a lot of our organizations is the community development piece.”
Community Futures Greenstone has introduced several new initiatives in the last year including micro loan opportunities and an entrepreneurship bursary program. Cianflone pointed to information released by Western Economic Diversification Canada that shows the benefit to businesses of taking advantages of Community Futures programs.
The statistics show that between 2009 and 2014 businesses assisted by Community Futures showed an employment growth rate of eight per cent, while non-assisted businesses had a rate of just under three per cent. Assisted businesses
reported 11.2 per cent in sales growth while non-assisted businesses reported just over six per cent. Assisted businesses reported a longevity rate of 66 per cent while non-assisted businesses reported a rate of 46 per cent.
Cianflone said Community Futures Canada had been completing advocacy work to gain an increase in funding, but stable funding was also a concern.
“Right now some of us are on three year contracts. Some are only on one. Greenstone is on a three year contract that expires on March 31 of this year, and we don’t have a new contract in place yet,” she said.
“Chances are we will operate on an extension. A consistent, stable model for funding our program would be nice to see.”
