NDIT doles out funds for eight projects

The Northern Healthy Communities Fund supports initiatives that assist healthy, sustainable and resilient communities facing rapid and large-scale economic development and the associated need for enhanced social service readiness.

“I think it’s a recognition that when you bring in a $40 billion investment into communities that you know, have less than 5000 people, you’re sucking up all the existing resources and then some,” says McKay. “And it has impacts on that community from a social development perspective. So the money is designed to actually help to offset some of those impacts and help the community adjust to that growth.”

Then following the departure of those major projects, there will have to be another adjustment, a re-sizing when thousands leave.

To date, the NDI Trust has doled out over seven million dollars to 54 projects across the region. And there’s more to come.

“Well, we have continual intakes, so we have for year continual intakes until the money is exhausted. And our target date for that is 2025, or 2026, whatever construction is, is complete on those projects. While today’s announcement of eight projects were predominantly for smaller communities, McKay has a message for the City of Prince George.

“We have not seen nearly enough projects come out of city or Prince George non-profits or the municipality itself. And the fund is meant to design or develop and disperse dollars for things like housing, wraparound services, victim services, mental health, capacity for local government, recreation, national initiatives that help to adjust to LNG.”

He says the funds could help to address a lot of the hot-button issues facing the municipality and those dollars are available to the City, the Regional District and local non-profits. The deadline for the next intake is February 10th of next year.

by Cheryl Jahn

NDIT doles out funds for eight projects

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