'Being told they've undertaken a fair process, but not being able to see what that is'

A Sudbury charity is raising concerns about how its city funding was cut in half. The social planning council wanted to see an audit report done on the work it does in the community. But a freedom of information request shows no such document exists.

City says despite FOI response, report listing results of community grant audit is on file

Erik White · CBC News ·
On Tuesday, city councillors will vote whether or not the social planning council and a half dozen other community groups will continue to get grant money this year. (Yvon Theriault/CBC)

In January 2017, the Social Planning Council of Sudbury was told its annual grant from the city for the next three years would be $50,000.

For the decade before it had been $100,000.

City council had voted to cut the group's funding during the budget talks in December 2016.

But the following month council was told by staff that the grants for everyone from the planning council to Rainbow Routes to the Capreol Northern Railway Museum were to be based on a series of value for money audits.

After being allotted the $50,000, the council's executive director Joseph Leblanc requested to see the report and was denied.

He then filed a freedom of information request for "value for money audits on community grants for 2017. Not the report that went to council, but the audits themselves. Including scoring and calculations."

"Which came back non-responsive and really left us with more questions than answers," says Leblanc.

"This is the process that we have in place in our democracy to access public documents and if they're not forthcoming, I would hope that council would pay attention to that and ask some hard questions."

Joseph Leblanc is the executive director of the Social Planning Council of Sudbury. (Erik White/CBC)

He says the planning council has since had to cut back on staffing and services it provides to lower-income neighbourhoods in Sudbury.

Leblanc says he wonders if the audit report actually exists.

"Being told they've undertaken a fair process, but not being able to see what that is," he says.

Barb Dubois, Greater Sudbury's manager of community initiatives and performance support, says she's not familiar with the exact wording of the freedom of information request, but says the document does indeed exist. 

"There is a score, based on the value for money of the $50,000 dollar grant," says Dubois.

City council will vote again Tuesday night on whether or not the social planning council and a half dozen other community groups will continue to get grant money this year. 

Leblanc says this is a separate concern, since 2018 is half over and the planning council and other charitable groups in the city have been running "on shoestring" until they get their cheque from the city. 

About the Author

Erik White

journalist

Erik White is a CBC journalist based in Sudbury, Ont. He covers a wide range of stories about northern Ontario. Connect with him on Twitter @erikjwhite. Send story ideas to erik.white@cbc.ca

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