One of Portage’s most active organizations will continue receiving support.

At December 12th’s City Council meeting, they agreed to continue funding the Portage Community Revitalization Corporation (PCRC) over the course of a three-year term. Councillor Ryan Espey says the city benefits from the PCRC drastically.

“They've provided so many different things,” explains Espey. “All the way from truth and reconciliation initiatives right to homelessness projects. As far as the amount of money that the City of Portage la Prairie invests into that organization, it's a very small portion of their overall funding, but the services we get from them are invaluable.”

He adds that the PCRC does have to abide by some terms in order to receive that funding. Some of those requirements include attending council meetings, continuing their graffiti removal program, and encouraging citizen responsibility through clean-ups, free events, beautification efforts, and safety initiatives.

PCRC’s executive director Mari Lawrence says, while this deal was originally deferred a few months ago, she had no doubts about this deal being finalized.

“We had really strong support from our last council and our new council is fantastic,” says Lawrence. “We already see really strong support from them as well, so I was very confident that they would approve it.”

Espey explains that the deal was only deferred so that the new council would be able to vote on the deal, as it covers a majority of what will be this council’s time in office.

Lawrence notes that council members visited the PCRC’s office to meet the team, which only furthered the trust between the council and the organization.