QUEEN’S PARK – Local MPP Steve Clark is calling on the government to reconsider its decision to scrap the Ontario Trillium Foundation grant program.
The plug was quietly pulled on the program on the Thursday afternoon before the Easter long weekend, which will cause a “devastating blow” to community groups, Clark said.
The Leeds-Grenville MPP said it was vital to groups like Legions, community centers and other facilities and was “literally keeping a roof over their heads.”
The OTF grant program would have been taking applications yesterday and now that process has been left high and dry, leaving applications worthless, the MPP said.
“The government has just dumped those applications and the 1000s of volunteer hours to complete them right into the shredder,” Clark said.
According to Clark’s office citing the ministry’s Expenditure Estimates, the $25 million Trillium program funding is being rolled into a new “Ontario 150” program.
How that program will be administered is not known.
“I’m already hearing from people about how this move will put groups in Leeds-Grenville in jeopardy. The minister needs to hear those voices and act immediately on my request to reinstate the program,” insisted Clark.