Farm Credit Canada will be handing out over $1 million for community initiatives (File Photo/paNOW Staff)

By Michael Joel-Hansen

Community Development

Money being made available for smaller communities

Mar 4, 2019 | 5:21 PM

Farm Credit Canada (FCC) wants to get the word out about their Agri Spirit Fund. The initiative aims to help out smaller communities by providing them money to help them with capital projects.

Jeff Affleck, a senior district director with FCC who is based out of Saskatoon, explained the fund gives communities a sizeable amount of money.

“FCC is providing $1.5 million to community groups across Canada to support capital projects, to basically enhance lives or contribute to sustainability,” he said.

Last year FCC said they approved 84 different projects which were worth $1.5 million. Affleck could not say how many projects would be approved as it depends on the applications.

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“It’s a focus that we have and it’s how we show we care about the communities where our customers and employees live and work,” he said.

Affleck said in his time being involved with the initiative there have been a variety of projects undertaken with the money.

“It’s a decent amount of money, to certainly help various projects, I’ve been a part of few, whether it be upgrading ball fields, or getting new fences at the agri centre,” he said.

Generally the amount of money awarded per bid ranges from $5,000 to $25,000. The deadline for applications is March 29 and the town or municipality applying must have a population which is below 150,000.

When applications close, local FCC offices will gather all the applications from their geographic area and pick out the best ones. The winning bids will be released in August.

“Local folks get to decide who the big winners are,” said Affleck.

Next applications are sent to those who are in charge of the fund, who make the final call on which applications get the green light. Affleck said FCC tries to make sure a wide range of communities get approved.

“We try and spread it out a course across the country evenly,” he said.

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MichaelJoel.Hansen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @mjhskcdn