BONNYVILLE - The MD of Bonnyville is supporting the town’s letter expressing their interest in becoming the region’s Family Resource Network hub.
David Beale, director of community services for the Town of Bonnyville, explained what the Family Resource Network is to council during their meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 18.
Beale outlined the role the hub will play in the community.
“It’s not the financial administrator. Traditionally, at least the way it works with the City of Cold Lake and Parent Link, is they have a grant relationship with the province and then we submit our quarterly expenses and they reimburse us. That’s how it works with Parent Link, but this won’t be that way. The Town of Bonnyville will seek funding strictly for the coordination and reporting of services. We won’t receive any of the funds for any one of the spoke services, or direct delivery groups.”
The news “came as a shock” in November, after the province announced they were pulling funding for roughly 450 family support grants, totaling $75-million. This included Parent Link and the Early Childhood Coalition. In their place, the Alberta government has created the Family Resource Network, which will offer a wider scope of resources using a hub and spoke model.
Beale said, “Now they’re issuing a call for request for proposals (through the Family Resource Network) for $57-million in grants. So there is a reduction.”
That decrease in dollars won’t impact the Family and Community Support Services (FCSS), he added.
“We were glad to hear that the FCSS funding would be maintained and there won’t be any change. They’re also coming up with a three-year grant fund for FCSS instead of the annual one, which is also encouraging.”
However, continued Beale, “The biggest issue will be how do we draw the line in the sand between family community supports and FRN supports. There is going to be a lot of hair splitting on what fits under which category.”
Not only is there less money to go around through the Family Resource Network model, Beale stressed, but the province is also expecting an increase in services.
“Our work in the past has been very focused on early childhood development services through our Parent Link Centres,” explained Beale. “What we’re looking at in the future going forward is the services will be provided for all children up to 18. It’s a more encompassing approach and it’s extremely detailed in the request for proposals here.”
The total dollars available to Family Resource Networks in the Bonnyville and area region, which includes St. Paul and the MD of Bonnyville, is just shy of $500,000.
Beale described the communities their grouping includes as “wonky.”
“The province has determined our region will be the region that begins in Vilna and goes up to Bonnyville and includes the MD of Bonnyville, but not the City of Cold Lake. The expression I used to described it is ‘wonky.’ The city has the joy of being partnered with Athabasca and Lac La Biche. We’re not quite sure why, because Cold Lake sits as an island with the MD of Bonnyville surrounding it.”
Regardless of this fact, the town’s letter to the province won’t request a change in boundaries.
Beale explained, “The challenge I’m facing is the deadline to submit your applications is Jan. 20, 2020. They haven’t provided any framework in terms of when they would consider reviewing those boundaries, which means if the boundaries are changed, now you’re really backed up because now you’re writing a new proposal for a region that has yet to be defined… Our proposal today… doesn’t ask for a boundary change. In our expression of interest, we do say that we’re open to negotiation if boundaries change we will work with whatever comes out of that.”
Cold Lake however, who is also showing interest in being a hub, will be recommending modifications to the regions.
“We would have to wait until we got the answer to that and then redevelop our proposal. We’re putting forward a proposal now that says ‘working with what you said, this is what we propose.’ If we’re successful with that, the next phase, which begins Feb. 15, is a team that’s formed between the successful proponents, which we hope to be, and the minister to negotiate how we operationalize that. At that point, I think that’s when we begin to say ‘these boundaries are really wonky, we need to make changes.’ I think at that point it will be easier to make changes and they may decide to change who will serve as the primary hub as well,” noted Beale.
With a tight deadline of Jan. 20 looming, Beale wants to submit the town’s position sooner rather than later. Although the municipality would have preferred more time in order to meet with residents to determine what would work best for the region.
After hearing Beale’s presentation and getting a better grasp of what the future holds, the MD agreed to support the town’s application to be a regional hub.
