A B.C. arts and culture advocacy group has welcomed the provincial review of community gambling grants Premier Christy Clark announced today (July 11).

Clark has appointed Skip Triplett, a former president of Kwantlen Polytechnic University, to lead the review and deliver a final report to the province by October 31.

“We’ve been waiting for this announcement for quite a while because it was a promise made by Premier Clark when she was in her [Liberal party] leadership campaign. So it’s good to see it’s being followed through upon,” said Amir Ali Alibhai, executive director of the Alliance for Arts and Culture.

In 2009-2010, the B.C. government cut the level of annual gambling-grant funding to charitable and nonprofit groups to $120 million from $156 million. Grant eligibility requirements were also tightened, shutting out adult arts and culture groups. In March, Clark boosted the annual grant-funding level by $15 million.

“I really think there’s an opportunity now to look back on a decision that probably wasn’t the best decision to make for British Columbia at the time, during the economic crisis, and sort of review it and have an opportunity to set things right,” Alibhai told the Straight by phone.

He said he hopes to see an “arms-length” process for allocating grant funding in communities, improved communication between the government and the charitable sector, a “stable” funding formula, and “restored” grant eligibility criteria.