When the City of Meadow Lake hosted its annual registration night Tuesday (Sept. 9), a popular mainstay over the years was surprisingly absent. That’s because the Meadow Lake Chapter of KidSport ceased to exist as of the end of July. KidSport, a non-profit organization, provides grants to help cover the costs of registration fees so children 18 and under who are less fortunate than others can play a season of sports.

“After 20-plus years of having a local KidSport chapter in Meadow Lake, it has ceased to exist,” explained Brian Gislason, one of Meadow Lake KidSport’s founding members. “A couple years ago, KidsSport’s provincial body came up with some new policies we really didn’t agree with. A lot of them are to do with low income guidelines.” The guidelines, which Gislason went on to describe more so as hard and fast rules, restrict local chapters from approving KidSport applications based on a certain number of children and how much the maximum gross family income is. For example, if a family with one child makes $45,000 or more per year, their application would be ineligible. For two children, the maximum gross family income cutoff is $50,000. The amount raises from there by increments of $5,000 with the addition of another child. “The way it used to be is the local committee would have a lot of discretion on which applications would be approved,” Gislason continued. “A lot of the time it was based on a letter of recommendation from a social worker, a teacher, a principal, a clergy member – people would need to have an endorser who could confirm this was a family in need… Then, a couple years ago, KidSport provincial came up with these guidelines.” Since the guidelines were introduced, Gislason said the local board did everything it could to convince the provincial body to rethink its numbers.

“If you have a working couple making $22,000 apiece (to meet the $45,000 cutoff for one child), that’s not even minimum wage,” he said. “We all know groceries are going up, the cost of living has increased, a lot of people are having trouble putting food on the table, but, if they make $46,000 a year they can’t apply for funding to enrol their child in sports?” In addition to the guidelines, the local chapter was also provided with an acknowledgement form from KidSport Saskatchewan requesting each board member to check a certain number of boxes before signing and returning the form. One such box states he or she, “agrees with the funding guidelines set out by KidSport Saskatchewan.” “None of us could check that box – we don’t agree with the guidelines,” Gislason said. “In good consciousness, we couldn’t check that box off and send that form in. So, we didn’t and our entire committee was terminated. It’s been an ongoing issue for a while. We’ve had Zoom meetings, meetings with our MLA, we’ve talked to everyone we could in an effort to convince them the guidelines weren’t right… If they’re going to give us income guidelines, at least have them be reasonable.”

The local board suggested using minimum wage to determine the financial cutoff. “That would be $64,000 per year which is considerably more than $45,000,” he said. “What they’re essentially saying is families who don’t even make minimum wage, we cannot fund. That just doesn’t feel right.” Gislason described this latest turn of events as disheartening. “I was one of the founding members who started KidSport in Meadow Lake, so it’s something I’ve believed in and something I believe the community has also believed in,” he noted. “I think of all the golf tournaments we’ve had and the tremendous support we received for those… The money we made at those events basically covered our yearly expenses, while businesses and individuals gave us a good buyin. We sponsored hundreds of kids each year who may not have had an opportunity to play sports, I’m a big believer in sport and I know the positive impact it can have on kids. It hurts to see the local chapter no longer be a thing.” Meadow Lake families can still apply for KidSport funding, but they have to apply directly to the province rather than through the local board. “There are families that, under the old system when we had more leeway… well, some of those families will no longer be eligible,” Gislason said. “They will now be left to their own devices I guess. Most likely these kids won’t be able to play. The whole idea of a local chapter to begin with is we live in the communities, we know the families and we have a better sense of who is in need. We also raised money that stayed in our communities – that won’t be there anymore either. I don’t know why the province had to suddenly get hard and fast with its rules – there’s no flexibility and it’s very restrictive.”

In terms of what he will miss the most after his more than two decades of involvement, Gislason said first and foremost would be the golf tournament fundraisers. “Not only did the golf tournaments raise money, but they were good community builders,” Gislason said. “They brought businesses and individuals together to all work toward a common cause. I will miss working with the community and seeing the kids we sponsor out on the ball field. That always gave me a good feeling. It’s sad to know a lot of these kids won’t be playing in the future.”