Nonprofits shut out of discussion as councillors recommend suspending community grants to shave down taxes

Several organizations that asked to speak at the inaugural meeting of council’s budget working group left disappointed on Tuesday.

The councillors appointed to the Strategic Opportunities Review Working Group (SORWG) are tasked with making recommendations that will reduce future property tax increases either through reduced spending or new revenue at London city hall.

Its first order of business was to consider a proposal by Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis and Coun. Steve Lehman to suspend Capital and Innovation Community Grants for the next three years ($500,000/year savings) and Neighbourhood Decision Making Grants ($250,000/year savings).

However, councillors disagreed about whether several nonprofit and charitable organizations that requested delegation status would be allowed to speak to the working group.

Lewis argued that the working group is different from a standing committee, and stakeholders will be able to speak to the proposal at the upcoming Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee (SPPC) and also during deliberations of the 2025 Municipal Budget Update.

“Working groups are not, in my opinion, intended to be an opportunity for individuals to get an extra delegation (opportunity) to speak to items multiple times,” he explained.

Coun. Skylar Franke urged colleagues to hear from the groups in attendance, “I don't see it as fair, and I don't see it as transparent, and I don't see it as people actually getting the opportunity to share their concerns.”

Members of the working group voted against hearing from the delegations.

Franke spoke to CTV News in the hallway immediately following the decision, “There is a lot of rhetoric that we don't accept delegations at working groups. We literally had a working group meeting for Governance Working Group (GWG) on Monday, and we accepted three delegations. Not two days later, we're now rejecting four delegations.”

Lewis chairs the GWG and later admitted his decision to let delegations speak on Monday was a mistake.

“They often say that they want to hear from the public and they want to know what we're thinking,” said Mary Ann Hodge of Climate Action London. “Yet when there's an opportunity to say something, they don't want to hear it.”

The delegations stayed to listen to the working group debate the proposal to suspend the two grants, which would reduce future budget projections by 0.1 per cent.

“We need to look at a bunch of small things that can add up to a (bigger) savings rather than just saying, well, this one's not significant and this one's not significant. The small things do add up,” Lewis explained.

Ultimately, the working group unanimously supported making a recommendation to suspend both grants.

“Everybody knows the property tax rate is too high,” the deputy mayor added. “That means some things are going to have to be looked at as to whether or not we continue to do them. And we made that first tough decision today.”

Coun. Sam Trosow is not a member of the SORWG, but attended the meeting as a guest.

“They reached the wrong decision. I think their reasoning was flawed,” Trosow said after the meeting. “I think that there is sort of an attitude that we really can't trust the community here.”

He expects an extensive debate when the SPPC discusses the recommendation later this summer.

“I think when people hear what happened here today there will be a lot more [delegation requests]. I think people who were here got a glimpse behind the scenes of what this council is about. This council is deeply divided on this and a number of other issues,” he added.

Former deputy mayor Maureen Cassidy had attended the meeting hoping to speak in her current role as CEO of Pillar NonProfit Network, “A lot of times organizations need multiple parties to come to the table to fund a project. And as Councillor Trosow said during the meeting, it's not a handout. These are community organizations.”

If approved by council, the recommendation to suspend the grants will be provided as a non-binding request to Mayor Josh Morgan when he is preparing his 2025 Municipal Budget Update later this year.