Municipal Program Helps Families to Participate in Recreation

By Dan Guetre

With the goal of creating healthy communities while enhancing the overall quality of life for its residents, the RM of Tache council and staff created a funding assistance program to try and mitigate financial barriers when it comes to recreation enrollment.

Tache’s Everyone Can Play Program offers subsidies towards the costs of recreational programming that residents can apply for if they fall within a certain “low” income scale.

The subsidy program offers up to 50% of the fee covered for recreation program fees up to a maximum of $500 per registrant. This is an increase from $300 the previous year.

Beyond the low-income threshold there are some additional caveats. The subsidy is only available for residents that are 18 years old of younger and recreation programs must be ones that are offered within the municipality.

According to the details of the program, exceptions may occur for unique circumstances, however, in most cases applications will not be considered if your household gross income exceeds those figures posted on the municipal website, without sound justification.

Additionally, in special circumstances and with reasonable justification, families may be entitled to funding greater than fifty percent, but this will be at the sole discretion of the CAO or Recreation and Community Services Manager.

Applications for this subsidy are accepted on an ongoing basis.

As income will need to be disclosed, along with some other family information, the municipality assures applicants that any information will be kept in confidence and reviewed only by the CAO or Recreation and Community Services Manager.

If the application is accepted, the family will be notified by telephone and a cheque for 50% of the program fee will be mailed to the program organization. You can reach out to the municipal office or your councilor for more information or a copy of the program details and income levels that are eligible. the same people that were originally concerned,” he explained.

Fast is confident in the final result.

“We ended up developing this parcel in 2 phases,” he elaborated. “Phase 1 (22 lots) sales have recently started with pricing from $109,900.”

Interest is already coming in for the new neighbourhood.

“We already have 5 lots under contract with a few more that we are working on,” he admitted. “That’s a brisk start and we are very pleased with the initial uptake.”

Fast believes Petite Pointe checks off a lot of boxes for those looking for a rural urban lifestyle.

“Folks love how close this is to the perimeter and appreciate that they don’t have to spend $150,000 or more on a lot,” he pointed out. “The idea that this is a community with a dyke strikes a chord with new buyers and now that they can drive by and see the land taking shape the excitement is increasing. The dyke provides more than just water protection, it also will provide some wind protection and rolling grade which is a nice change to ‘pancake flat’.”