Thank you very much, everybody, for the invitation to appear before this committee.
My name is Ben Quinn, and I am the operations manager at Sasamat Outdoor Centre.
Sasamat Outdoor Centre is an accredited member of the British Columbia Camps Association. We have been in operation since 1986, though we have had camping groups on Sasamat Lake going back to 1962 under our former camp name, Camp Wallace. We are also a member of the Association of Neighbourhood Houses of British Columbia, a non-profit, community-based organization and one of B.C.'s oldest registered charities. It was established in 1894.
Situated on beautiful Sasamat Lake, Sasamat Outdoor Centre is surrounded by enchanting natural forests that make the setting ideal for personal learning and growth. We offer a variety of day camp and overnight camp programs for children and youth ages four to 15. Our facilities and programs include high ropes challenge courses, canoeing, kayaking, rock climbing, archery, shelter building, and a number of traditional summer camp programs that you'd expect to see at an outdoor summer camp. Our staff are well trained and passionate about outdoor education and child development. We strive to make every camper feel valued and included.
Sasamat has been fortunate to be a recipient of the Canada summer jobs wage subsidy program for many years. As a summer camp, we naturally attract youth in their early years of high school or post-secondary to our staff team. On average, we employ between 40 and 50 youth per summer who meet the criteria of the Canada summer jobs program.
As a non-profit organization, we have been very grateful for this program. The funding we receive makes a huge impact in offsetting our overall costs of running these camps, and it's an essential piece of funding that helps keep our programs affordable and accessible to as many families as possible.
Like many camps across the country, in recent years Sasamat Outdoor Centre has been financially vulnerable from the impacts of COVID-19 and subsequent rising costs across all areas of our operations. This year, we were hit with another financial hurdle when we received our funding from the Canada summer jobs program: It was, unexpectedly, less than half of what we had received in the previous year and about half of what our average funding amount has been in the last five years.
We understand from follow-up conversations that there was less of a pool of funds to go around in our area this year. However, as a non-profit that has come to rely on this funding year over year, this is a difficult challenge for us to overcome.
Needless to say, we are very thankful that this program exists and we hope it will continue for many years to come.
I want to thank you for your time. I'm happy to take any questions that you have now.