Ontario foundation accused of playing politics with grant money

The Ontario body that hands out $100 million a year to non-profit organizations is being accused of rejecting some proposals for purely political reasons.

Formed in 1982 as an arm's-length body, the Trillium Foundation is mandated to direct some of the money made by the Ontario Lottery Corp. toward social issues in the province.

One proposed program that was recently rejected by the foundation was put forward by the Sierra Club. In conjunction with other environmental groups, the Sierra Club wanted to establish what would be called the Community Monitoring Network.

The plan involved training a network of volunteers who would test water quality and send information to a central data bank.

"It's an inspired concept that goes a long way to give citizens stewardship over the quality of the water supply," said Dan McDermott, director of the club's eastern chapter.

McDermott says the Sierra Club was shocked to learn the plan was turned down.

Trillium Foundation CEO Robin Cardoso said the Sierra Club is politically active and that makes it ineligible for a grant.

But McDermott thinks there is politics involved on the other side of the table.

"The sensitivity around Walkerton and high level publicity around that was holding them back from funding water quality initiatives," he said.

That's an allegation Cardoso rejects.

But McDermott says the decision could send a chill through the sort of environmentalist groups Trillium says it wants to attract.