The District of Houston council is backing a bid by the Dze L’Kant Friendship Centre to close a gap in the money it has compared to what it needs to build a new facility.
Although the friendship centre received $4.573 million in a combined federal-provincial grant last year, costs have risen since the application was first submitted.
And so the centre is applying to the Northern Healthy Communities Fund administered by the Northern Development Initiative Trust, friendship centre official Emma Bowen informed council via a letter.
“Success of the application will allow us to recover the shortfall in funds and proceed with the original project plan,” she said of a planned building completion date of spring 2025.
The Northern Healthy Communities Fund can provide up to $500,000 to a maximum of 80 per cent of a specific project cost.
In this circumstance the friendship centre would use the grant to cover costs of a daycare centre, community kitchen and gathering place planned for the first floor of the proposed structure.
“The funds will be utilized to provide an improved facility for the whole community to access, supporting multi-faceted programming in order to support economic growth in our community,” Bowen wrote to council.
Dze L’Kant received word of its successful federal-provincial grant application last spring, one of 21 announced for projects within rural and remote areas of the province.
Only Enderby, which is getting $5 million for an outdoor pool, ranked higher than the friendship centre in dollar value of those 21 projects.
At the time of last spring’s announcement, Houston mayor Shane Brienen called the project significant for the benefit it will have on the community.
Council has passed a resolution supporting the friendship centre and will also supply a letter of support.
The friendship centre can expect to hear by the end of March as whether its application to the Northern Development Initiative Trust is successful.