County council will consider giving a grant of $37,500 to the Guelph-Wellington Business Enterprise Centre when it starts its budget discussions.
That recommendation from the administration, finance, and personnel committee was approved by council after some discussion on Nov. 23.
When the issue was discussed, councillor Jean Innes wanted to know how the organization is funded.
Committee chairman John Green explained that in the past, the county provided $109,000, but that had been reduced a year ago. He said the reason was a community officer was supposed to be spending time in each lower tier municipality, but that effort had not worked well enough. He said in some meetings the officer had no people with whom to discuss starting businesses.
Councillor Rod Finnie said the $109,000 had actually been paid two years ago, and was reduced last year to $35,000, which helped to pay for core funding of programs.
He said he has sat on the committee and at the last meeting it had received information about the value for dollars the centre provides.
Finnie said he concluded the money was “pretty good value for the dollars.
Innis agreed that the grant is a small amount in the over view of the entire county budget.
