eFlash! 2019-08

2019 AGM — Annual General Meeting / AGA 2019 — Assemblée générale annuelle

Treasurer’s Report / Rapport Du Trésorier

[ return to the index / Agenda ]

The following is a report on the CEC’s current financial situation as of the start of the current fiscal year (2019–20). Please refer to the 2018–19 Financial Report (in the documents provided to those present at the CEC’s 2019 AGM). 1[1. The Treasurer’s Report starts at 16:57 in the audio recording of the AGM.]

Year-End Financial Report

Referring to the first page of the CEC’s Financial Report for the 2018–19 fiscal year, which ended on 31 May 2019, the association’s financial situation as of 31 May 2019 is summarized as follows:

• Actifs (Assets) of $1,340 in the bank plus $1,000 in Accounts Due plus a $10,000 SOCAN Foundation grant payment due give a total of $12,340;
• Passif (Liabilities) of $2,119 in Accounts Payable plus the repayment of a $5,500 short-term loan give a total of $7,619;
• Assets minus Liabilities leave a Net Asset of $4,721.

Page 2 of the Financial Report presents a summary of revenues and expenses (grouped in categories) for the 2018–19 fiscal year. Consistent with previous years, the CEC’s primary sources of revenue this past year were the SOCAN Foundation and membership dues, while the principal expenses for the same period were Subcontracting (administrative salaries), followed by Professional Fees paid for programming, grant-writing assistance, accounting and translation, as well as prize money awarded to JTTP 2018 winners.

Accounts Due this year are outstanding membership payments for 2018–19; Accounts Payable consist of monies owed for administrative salary, translation, accounting and internet/hardware, as well as for the short-term loan mentioned above.

The difference in total revenues ($27,801) and total expenses ($28,220) means that the CEC’s 2018–19 expenses exceeded its revenues by $419. As with last year, this is a rather negligible amount.

Financial Forecast for the Current Fiscal Year

The third page of the Financial Report is an Annex that serves only to provide simplified summaries. The first table shows what was described above. The second table presents a simple overview of the projected revenues available to the CEC for the 2019–20 fiscal year: Net Assets (the subtotal from the first table) plus the second SOCAN Foundation 2019 Annual Operations grant payment (coming in September) plus projections of the first payment for the 2020 Annual Operations grant, membership fees and JTTP 2019 donations leave the CEC with a “working balance” of $54,321 for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Income Sources

SOCAN Foundation

The CEC has received stable funding of $20,000 per year from the SOCAN Foundation since 2016 (when it was increased by 60% from $12,500 in 2015). Last year, we requested significantly more funding, but simply there were no extra funds available in their budget to allow for an increase.

Annual Operations from the SOCAN Foundation will become a three-year application starting in 2020. We have just submitted our first multi-year application for the 2020–22 fiscal years, and hope for an increase in funding due to the new process. Multi-year funding will mean increased financial stability for the CEC going forward. There will be more news about that once an answer comes in late 2019 from our application.

The Canada Council for the Arts

Since the last AGM, the CEC has received two grants awarded by the Canada Council: a small Representation and Promotion grant to have jef chippewa represent JTTP 2018 winners in a concert of their works in Sound Junction (Sheffield, England); and a major grant through the Sector Innovation and Development programme for continued upgrades to Sonus (which Yves will report on shortly) in the amount of $19,000. This project will run over the first half of the 2019–20 fiscal year. With these two project grants, the CEC again meets the criteria to apply for core-type funding from the Canada Council. We will submit a major application to the Council’s Support Organization programme for multi-year funding in October 2019. If successful, it would be for four fiscal years starting in June 2020.

The CEC’s Current Financial Situation

In recent years costs have increased but funding has remained stable. The only place to cut this past year, to avoid important shortfalls (as in 2016–17), was hours worked: Yves gave up two months of work and jef one month to ensure the CEC not be forced to use a significant portion of its Net Assets to complete the fiscal year.

With recent successes in new grant applications and the CEC now eligible to apply for Canada Council core-type funding, it looks promising that we will emerge healthy for the long term after several years of difficulties.

Overdue wage increases have been given to the CEC’s two administrators starting in 2019–20. They will be absorbed into the budget covered by expected funding increases from the SOCAN Foundation and new funding from the Canada Council. It is expected that an increase in our SOCAN Foundation grant would be enough to cover recent years’ increases in operating costs. New Canada Council funding would provide the means to instigate a number of things on the CEC’s “wish list”, such as paying eContact! writer and guest editor fees, increased promotional activities for all of its projects, increases to funds available for (website) programming and translation, and other new initiatives of the CEC.

Despite some challenges and needing to use a slight amount from the surplus this year, the CEC is very optimistic that a healthier and stable financial outlook is slowly getting in place, thanks to the efforts of our staff and Board of Directors.

Shawn Pinchbeck
Treasurer of the CEC
Edmonton, Tuesday, 27 August 2019