Every year, municipalities must establish a pre-determined budget on how they will be spending taxpayer money. These municipalities have a fixed income and to make room for necessary upgrades to essential services and infrastructure, some non-essential services may need to be scaled back or cut altogether. These services often include heritage and culture, accessible transit, parks, and recreation. While they are deemed non-essential, these are often the services that mean the most to citizens.
By creating these endowment funds, we’re providing a sustainable source of funding for what matters most to our citizens. We’ve carefully included contributions to each endowment fund through day-to-day operations, including rental fees, transit fares, and movie production to guarantee these endowments see a steady income.
The Selkirk Endowments are held by the Selkirk and District Community Foundation (SDCF). The SDCF uses professional investment fund managers to invest these endowments, so we are confident every dollar contributed will be stretched as far as possible. Once established, endowment funds must mature over a five year period before we have access to their contributions. This money will be used to fund the long-term maintenance costs of capital projects, so we can enjoy the most of our services today, tomorrow and forever.
All donations will be made through Canada Helps, Canada’s largest charitable social enterprise.
Gifts will then be transferred to and held by the Selkirk and District Community Foundation
Established in 2012, the Selkirk Heritage Endowment Fund was created to provide a sustainable source of funding to support a future municipal museum for the City of Selkirk. The city is currently creating an online portal for a virtual museum, with funds helping with technical support. Funds from the Selkirk Heritage Endowment Funds have also been granted to the Marine Museum of Manitoba to help with their operations.
Established in 2018, the Selkirk Parks Endowment Fund to provide our parks, park amenities and programs and sustainable source of funding. This endowment fund helps Selkirk’s parks to continue to offer the beautiful natural spaces, trails, equipment and other amenities our citizens and visitors come to expect. The city takes pride in the fact there is a neighbourhood park within an 8-minute walk of almost anywhere in the city, and this fund helps maintain those parks and it’s amenities.
Established in 2020, the Selkirk Recreation Endowment Fund hopes to maintain Selkirk’s many rec facilities, including Selkirk’s new Recreation Facility, which will eventually replace the Selkirk Arena in the near future. The money raised will help with replacement costs for equipment, upgrades to dressing rooms and upgrades for accessibility.
Also established in 2020, the Selkirk Accessible Transit Fund hopes to do just that, provide accessible transit for all citizen in Selkirk. The money raised will go to into upgrades to our current fleet, and hopefully making transit options more available across Selkirk.