Port Clements council voted last week (Jan. 3) to give an unspent $15,000 grant to the Misty Isles Economic Development Society. The village had been planning to use the money, which came from the Northern Development Initiative Trust, for an economic feasibility study on a barge ramp. However, Port did not receive any responses when it advertised looking for a consultant to undertake the study, administrator Kim Mushynsky told council. As a consequence, the $15,000 was not spent by the end of 2011 and would have to returned to Northern Development unless it were to be passed along to MIEDS. The $15,000 was half of a $30,000 grant that municipalities are eligible to receive every year from Northern Development for economic development. The municipalities on the islands usually hand their grants over to MIEDS, which is jointly operated by the local governments and uses the money for economic development projects. Last year, however, Port voted to keep half the money for the economic feasibility study. The village must now decide what it wants to do with the $30,000 grant it will receive for 2012. Council members defeated a motion to give the entire grant to MIEDS, and then voted to table the decision to their next meeting.
