Council narrowly okays artists grant
October 6, 2006

A $750,000 city grant to Hamilton Artists Inc (HAI) to help the 31-year-old organization purchase a permanent home on James Street North received final approval last week in a 9 to 6 city council vote. The group expects to raise an additional half million from provincial and federal agencies.

Mayor Di Ianni was one of the opponents of the grant. He had not attended the committee of the whole meeting that approved the grant, and suggested that the artists group only receive enough money “to fund a needs assessment that would make the case for moving forward with a fuller grant”.

Bill Kelly expressed concern about an “end run” by the artists group whose earlier request had been turned down by the Future Fund board. Council had told the board that it could only give out $3 million in response to about $14 million in requests, and HAI came up empty. Kelly suggested that the board, which he also sits on, would not be pleased by the council decision.

“You said we didn't have the money, and you said that we weren't allowed to allocate that money, and then you turn around a couple of weeks later at city council and allocate the money that you said that we couldn't have.” Chad Collins echoed Kelly's concerns, suggesting that the second chance for HAI was “sort of special treatment, or preferential treatment given to that group over some of the others”.

Kelly voted in favour of the grant along with Bob Bratina, Margaret McCarthy, Brian McHattie, Bernie Morelli, Sam Merulla, Maria Pearson, Art Samson and Terry Whitehead. Collins voted against along with Di Ianni, Dave Braden, Phil Bruckler, Tom Jackson and Dave Mitchell.