Penelope Rowe, president of the Community Services Council, told CBC that a new provincial government ministry aimed at the volunteer and not-for-profit sector is a good thing.
Well, of course.
"By working collectively with government, we can try to lay out a framework that looks at the issues across a variety of organizations," Rowe said.
The CSC news release is effusive in its praise for the new initiative, identifying the appointment of a particular individual as minister as a key aspect:
“Naming The Honourable Tom Hedderson, Minister Responsible for the Volunteer and Non-Profit Sector is a major step in recognizing the importance of this sector to quality of life in communities across the province,” said Penelope Rowe...
Rowe singled out specific initiatives from the progressive Conservative platform, namely:
- formalize a policy and program framework to strengthen and support the community-based sector and to enhance the development of social economy enterprises, especially in rural regions, as means of improving services, providing additional employment
- recognize and celebrate the work of community volunteers
- through discussions with the Community Services Council and other community organizations in the volunteer sector, produce a scope of work document to set the terms for an initiative to strengthen the relationship between the government and the volunteer sector, to improve the grants process, and to identify opportunities for cooperation and collaboration.
Odd that Rowe stopped there in the list. The next one may give some idea as to why the CSC is quite so tickled with the new initiative for volunteers and not-for-profits:
- increase funding for the Community Services Council
But Rowe, who is obviously fairly tight with the current administration, didn't seem to feel any need to either raise a question about or even mention the next item listed in the Tory platform:
- continue to implement the recommendations of the task force on the not-for-profit sector
If Rowe knows anything about the task force, she sure wasn't letting that slip either. If Rowe doesn't have some kind of inside knowledge on this task force, she ought to be questioning what it is and what the report says.
As Bond Papers noted during the recent election campaign, there is absolutely no public record of such a task force even being created let alone issuing a report which is already being implemented.
Maybe someone will asked Hedderson or Rowe about the apparently secret task force or consider going to someone other than Rowe for comment on this initiative. The CSC isn't the only volunteer/not-for-profit in the province and CSC is by no means an umbrella organization.
The volunteer sector is important, but when you head the only group in the province singled out in a party campaign document for extra cash from public coffers, your endorsement would be - at the very least - taken as a given.
-srbp-