Petition against Gaming Cuts!

This petition is to oppose cuts to gaming monies.  If JDFMHA loses gaming money, now or in the future, our fees will go up.  If you are interested in signing the petition, the link is at the bottom.

Petition opposes cuts

By Colleen Dane - Comox Valley Record

Published: February 18, 2010 6:00 PM

A provincewide concern has been put into words by a Comox Valley volunteer and presented to the B.C. legislature.

Geraldine Foster, president of the Valley Charitable Bingo Society and secretary of the Bingo Council of B.C., has authored a petition against cuts to gaming grants by the provincial government.

“We’re concerned that when the new budget comes in March, there could be more,” said Foster. “It’s tearing at the social fabric of our communities.”

The petition is meant to raise the profile of the provincial government’s cuts last year to gaming grants — and the insecurity organizations face when it comes to future funding as the province talks about tight budgets to come.

As of last Friday, it had collected more than 3,500 signatures.

Decreased funding has already seriously impacted some organizations’ programs, said Foster — and because three-year funding contracts aren’t being signed right now, many more organizations are unclear about what will come in the future.

“It makes it really difficult to make any long-term plans,” she said, using her own charity, Glacier View Lodge, as an example of one challenged by the changes. She also points to groups like sports associations that rely on these funds to keep signup costs low.

Foster said they feel that a memorandum of understanding between the charitable community and the government, which said one-third of gaming funds would go to charitable organizations in the province, has been broken.

Through the Bingo Council of B.C., Foster was asked to start the petition, which is online now. She’s also presented a 500-signature document to MLA Don McRae, which he’s taken to Victoria.

Comments in the online petition reflect similar concerns from people across B.C.

“The promise from the beginning was that gaming monies would support charitable organizations in B.C.” writes one respondent. “Over the years the revenues have continued unabated while the flow of revenue to charities has been squeezed to a trickle. Charities provide huge support to citizens of B.C. at comparatively low cost. Gaming dollars are an appropriate and necessary way to support their valuable work.”