Editor, The News:

Re: Youth Matrix program axed (The News, Nov. 11).

The B.C. government’s ‘Wrecking Crew’ is at work again. This time it is the cuts and continuity of funding for charities.

This must be one of the most cruel, hard-hearted cuts because once again it hits those who can least fend for themselves: children’s programs, the poor, animal welfare, the environment.

It is also economically and financially stupid since with charitable work you get the most for your buck.

Most charities operate on shoe-string budgets with low overhead, miserable wages for the few paid staff (no big bonuses for work well done-or not), and most of the work done for free by thousands of volunteers.

Charities have always been an integral part of our social safety network and of our social well-being.

On the one hand, the government extols to us all the wonderful benefits of the 2010 Winter Olympics and the ensuing revenues next year, and then, on the other hand, it claims recession and “bad economic times” to make theses cuts and loss of commitment for charities.

Which one is it?

One of these pictures does not fit in this contradictory budget.

There seems to be lots of money to fete VIPs, give out free tickets to MPs and splurge on five-star hotels and other ‘Olympic’ costs.

Robin Hood in reverse: take from the poor and give to the rich.

A charitable operation is very hard to run when you do not know whether you will have funding for the next year. You cannot attract good staff, you cannot make any plans past a few months, let alone any long-range planning.

Most programs require extra fundraising, which takes time. By the time you have the private funds, you may not receive the gaming funding any longer.

You cannot even enter into a lease for your premises with such insecure funding.

The amount of time it takes to prepare and submit your proposals each year is also time taken away from the actual work the charities do.

Last year, when the question about expanded gambling and a new casino in Maple Ridge came up, several charities wrestled with the moral dilemma of accepting proceeds from gambling to fund their work.

Bingo used to be a rather benign, local community activity originally started to fund-raise for good causes.

Now it has expanded to a multi-million dollar gambling operation run by commercial interests.

It was a bit easier to take money from gambling proceeds when it went back to charitable causes. That is changing now.

Unfortunately, the majority of our local charities also became the most vocal proponents for expanded gambling, because they feared for their existence. They gambled on gambling and, like so many other gamblers, are now facing the bitter results.

This is not the way to fund charitable social, community and environmental causes.

We desperately need a better and more certain way of funding, which is not tied to lottery and gambling money.

The people who we are serving deserve better.

The greatness of a society can be judged by the way it treats its most vulnerable.

Maria Raynolds

Maple Ridge