I went through this item in great deal at Committees last Monday. I felt we had turned this important item into a dog’s breakfast by bundling a variety of disparate grants in one item.

Certainly Building environmental grants, matching grants, village grants, community services grants and cultural and creative grants all ought to be in their own separate items. I hope we can remedy this in the future.

There are so many worthwhile and exceptional grants that are let down by being in the company of many zany and certainly less worthy grants.

I thank to staff for written clarification of a number of those grants which is very helpful.

By bundling all these grants together, discussion gets stifled, poorer grants escape scrutiny and the really good grants miss out on getting praise.

My vote will stay “No” as there are grants that I’m still not sure about and some I’m sure shouldn’t be there.