Manitoba summer camps say they're left scrambling after surprise funding shortage

The Manitoba provincial minister who oversees youth summer camp funding will meet with a group that represents more than two dozen camps after some say they've been left scrambling by news that with summer just around the corner, they won't have government support they've come to rely upon.

The Manitoba Camping Association surveyed its 27 Manitoba groups when they started to hear rumblings of provincial Green Team grants being denied. Of the 19 that responded, eight said they were denied grants — including some groups that already hired staff, banking on the government money.

"We're scared.... They have to say to these staff, 'I can't pay you what I told you I was going to pay you,' and I feel awful about that," said Kim Scherger, the association's executive director, on Tuesday. 

"Other camps are saying they think staff are going to walk away from the job," said Scherger. "So they're going to be scrambling now."

During question period at the Manitoba Legislature on Tuesday, the Opposition Progressive Conservatives pressed Municipal and Northern Affairs Minister Ian Bushie for the second day in a row over those concerns.

Bushie countered the NDP government has put more funding into Green Team grants this year, and has increased funding by over 40 per cent compared to pre-pandemic levels. Up to $5.9 million was earmarked for the 2024 intake, compared to just over $4 million pre-pandemic, he said.

But Bushie said the program also had a record number of applications for funding — over 800 this year, compared to the usual 600 to 700.

Asked whether it was possible that the province would reconsider awarding funds to organizations that had been denied, Bushie said "that's a significant conversation we want to have with the camping association."

The government will "look at all options that are on the table," he said. 

"No camps will be closing, and that's a priority."

MLA Trevor King, the Tory critic for northern relations and Indigenous economic development, said there have been "lots" of municipalities that also applied for Green Team funding and were declined.

King said if there was record demand, the money could've been spread out more, as opposed to denying funding entirely for groups that have come to rely on it.

"It's something important enough that they should be able to find the funding for it," he said. "It's just going to put … [the groups] further in debt, and it's disappointing for the youth who were counting on these jobs."

'A thumb in the face' after pandemic closures: camp

Scherger said some of the groups she has spoken to have cited lingering pandemic debt among the ongoing financial pressures they face, which could be exacerbated without the grant funding.

"We were closed for two years straight, and for them to do this right now to us is sort of a thumb in the face," said Danial Sprintz, executive director of Camp Massad for the past 15 years.

"We're really hoping that the Manitoba government is going to reconsider."

Camp Massad is one of three camps in the Interlake, two of which received no Green Team funding this year, according to Manitoba Camping Association.

Sprintz said Camp Massad applied for $33,000 this intake after receiving $17,400 in 2023, $17,500 in 2022 and $32,800 in 2021.

"This year we waited and we waited and we waited. We hired the positions. We have people waiting to go out next week, and then we find out that we were declined," he said. "We were given no advance notice of any change in their policy or … any change in their funding."

Bushie said there has been no change in criteria.

Sprintz said Camp Massad may have to "tone it down" in terms of planned programming and possibly staffing.

Like King, he says the province should've doled out funds more evenly in the face of high demand, rather than effectively cutting off groups like his.

Camp Manitou, located just outside of Winnipeg, confirmed it received about $40,000.

"We really appreciate our partnership" with the camping association, said camp director Jeff Hofer. "And the Green Team has supported us in the past and supported us this year, and we really appreciate that as well."

Scherger said in past years, some MCA summer camps applied for the maximum $150,000 through the program and would get $75,000-$85,000.

Of the 10 or so she knows that received funding this year, the amounts ranged from around $20,000 to about $40,000. Several camps received a third or a quarter of what they typically would expect, she said.

"It really seems like ... why did these camps receive money, and these camps did not receive money?" she said. "I'm hoping that [the minister] will be able to do something to alleviate some of that debt pain."