Owen Sound council has decided to donate $5,000 from its council expense budget to the local legion’s poppy campaign.
Legions have been struggling due to the pandemic because they have missed out on fundraising events and other sources of revenue like renting out legion space for events due to the pandemic.
On Monday, November 2nd Councillor Richard Thomas pointed out volunteers who would normally be canvassing for the poppy fund are not doing so this year. Poppy boxes can still be found in stores.
Thomas says, “It’s an important organization in the community and I really think it needs to be supported.”
Staff say the council expense fund has a $6,500 surplus because councillors aren’t traveling to events and meetings this year.
The lone vote against the idea came from Mayor Ian Boddy, who temporarily gave up the Mayor’s chair in the meeting to vote against it.
He noted years ago the City used to give grants, but it has mostly stopped doing so, “We don’t give to Summerfolk, we don’t give to any other charities and as soon as you open up that door you’ve got to have a budget to start to pick that out of,” says Boddy.
Boddy told council, “I very much appreciate what the legion does in this town. That money specifically goes to supporting veterans and the programs that the legion offers for veterans. I think that’s important, and I very much encourage people in the community to dig into their pocket, but i don’t think we should be doing this because what’s next after that? Plucking something out of the blue and passing a motion to waive notice without time to think about it…to spend five or six thousand dollars, it’s still taxpayers money on something specific. It’s important to our community but so is heart and stroke,” said Boddy.
Boddy adds, “There’s a lot of other groups, I just don’t think it’s appropriate.”
Meanwhile Thomas says no one approached him to suggest the donation, that it was his idea alone, “I looked at the legion as a community organization that really does good work in the community and could probably use a hand at this time of year,” says Thomas.
“I certainly appreciate the Mayor’s comments, but these are not normal times,” says Thomas adding, “People are making exceptions and doing things to help out everywhere in our community and that was the intent behind my motion.”
