Heather Wright/The Independent

It turns out when Plympton-Wyoming lets community groups know it is accepting grant applications, a lot of them will apply for a lot more money than the municipality planned on giving.

Earlier this year, after dealing with grant requests from community groups throughout the year, council approved a grant request process. Part of it was to notify community groups of the timing of grant process.

Treasurer Norma Roddick-Preece followed the new policy leading into January’s budget deliberations.”
“The total requested amount for 2026 grants is $106,566.66. For comparison, the average annual grant allocation over the past three years was $27,944.00 per year,” she wrote in a report to council Nov. 29.

The list includes some big asks; a $25,000 from the Forest Legion to help with repairs and $10,000 to the Wyoming Lions to help build a new pavilion. It also is asking for council to wave the building permit fees of about $3,600.

There were a number of groups which consistently receive a couple of hundred dollars to help put on everything from local fairs to plowing matches.

And there were applications for money for sports. The Town of Petrolia is again requesting $10,000 to support the cost of running the Greenwood Recreation Centre. It’s received money from Plympton-Wyoming for a number of years since many Wyoming residents play in the Petrolia Minor Hockey Association.

That caught the eye of the Lambton Shores Minor Hockey Association. It says one third of its membership is from Plympton-Wyoming. The group has asked for $4,500 to help pay for ice time.

“If council approved all grant application requests, a tax rate increase of 0.71 per cent to all ratepayers would be required to accommodate the grant increase,” Roddick-Preece wrote.

“I think the first thing is we should add this process in the future is that the total amount is known at the time of application. So if there’s only $30,000 and there’s not a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, just so applicants having a rough idea for what’s available,” said Councillor Alex Boughen.

“We can obviously see it’s getting out of hand,” said Councillor Bob Woolvett. “But on the other hand, you know, we asked people to put their paperwork in to request this, so this is what you end up with. But there’s just no way that we could meet that kind of a figure I don’t believe anyway.”

Woolvett said he wanted to give preference to Plympton-Wyoming organizations.

“We got some pretty big numbers in here that are going outside the community, maybe justifiably so, maybe not. But I like to concentrate on their own community,” he said.

Council has agreed to put a cap of $30,000 on the amount of donations available in 2026.
Which organizations will receive the grants will be determined when Plympton-Wyoming council works on its budget in January.