(Supplied/Red Deer Highland Games)

By Josh Hall | @Vancan19

could be reviewed during budget talks

Red Deer arts & culture groups dissatisfied with grant funding

Nov 25, 2025 | 3:39 PM

A slew of Red Deer arts and culture-related non-profits are none too pleased after learning they aren’t getting the funding they’d hoped for from a municipal grant.

The grant in question is the City of Red Deer’s Community Culture Development Fund (CCDF), which currently has an annual budget of $445,000 for organizations to put towards projects.

The Red Deer Arts Council (RDAC), for example, will receive $50,000 from the grant this coming year, down from the $90,000 they received last year. It’s also further below the $150,000 they requested.

Or take the 78-year-old Red Deer Highland Games which has previously received $6,000 yearly, but requested $20,000 this year, and wound up approved for zero.

Bobby-Jo Stannard, manager of the city’s Safe and Healthy Communities Department, tells rdnewsNOW there was a 32 per cent increase in applicants this year, with a total of 51 applications received.

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That equates to a 64 per cent increase in the combined amount of money organizations were asking for — $1.103 million, or 2.48-times what was budgeted.

An open letter (see below), signed by eight organizations, along with a Facebook post, identify a number of the others impacted, including Sunnybrook Farm Museum, Prime Stock Theatre, Red Deer Pottery Club, Central Music Festival, the aforementioned Highland Games, plus Central Alberta Theatre, ReThink Red Deer and the Norwegian Laft Hus.

It also includes Family Services of Central Alberta for the Children’s Festival, Red Deer Festival for the Performing Arts, Red Deer Museum + Art Gallery, and the Centrefest Street Performers Festival.

Suzanne Hermary, RDAC executive director, accuses the city of not having enough arts-focused people on its adjudication group, with the city explaining that while adjudication was previously done by community members, it has since been moved in-house.

Stannard says the adjudicators decide how the grant is distributed based on a scoring matrix, and that it’s not based on any one adjudicator’s personal background or leanings.

“We do as much as we can to raise funds and stay viable without entirely drawing from city funds, but that is our backbone that allows us the time and stability to do all the other work fundraising and providing the services we offer,” says Hermary, who believes council needs to look at significantly increasing what the grant is able to provide during upcoming budget talks.

Stannard says at this time, she’s not aware of any administrative request for council to specifically address this grant, but that could change if the city gets as many grant appeals as Hermary is predicting.

CCDF through the years:

• 2016: funded $338,466
• 2017: funded $368,023
  *included third category for Canada 150 celebrations
• 2018: funded $351,539
• 2019: funded $322,142
• 2020: funded $326,060
  *COVID-19 era
• 2021: funded $289,280
  *COVID-19 era
• 2022: funded $290,900
  *COVID-19 era

Stannard explains organizations can appeal the decision of the adjudication committee, but it must be grounded in a scoring matrix-related error, not just being unhappy with the decision, she says.

Hermary says new cultural organizations and one-off festivals getting funding is completely valid, but wants the city to know that decreasing what other long-standing groups get will decimate seasonal or year-round arts programs.

The RDAC is also set to take over the Scott Block Theatre in downtown Red Deer effective Dec. 1, but this funding decision has changed the scope of what they may look like.

Hermary says it will be a revenue generator for the RDAC but they may not be able to conduct as much of their own programming as originally planned.

The open letter can be read below: