Canning’s volunteer groups are at risk of folding unless council pays their insurance premiums, the council agenda forum was told on Tuesday night.
Stephen Johnston, of Rossmoyne, spoke on behalf of the three community landcare organisations saying the city’s public liability and personal accident insurance policies only covered groups working on council-managed land.
He said the thousands of dollars spent on premiums over the past 90 years could have been better spent in protecting and restoring three major areas of Canning’s conservation estate.
“To give you a snapshot of the size of our work contribution in just one 12-month period, in ’22-’23 the three groups’ volunteers put in 3288 hours of on ground work supported by a further 1116 hours of offsite admin work and that in total equated to 12 months full time work for nearly 10 people based on a 38-hour week,” he said.
“On top of that through their successful grant applications over the years, the groups have brought into Canning hundreds of thousands of dollars of Commonwealth and State Government funding for local environment projects.
“While we work in close partnership with the city, the groups are largely self-dependent and have reluctantly had to regard insurance premiums as another general expense to be borne albeit the largest of these by far.
“Last financial year the premiums constituted on average about 65 per cent of our general expenses.
“We’ve managed to find the necessary funds from administrative contributions from grants and donations from pretty small membership fees but each year it gets harder and harder as the premiums go up.
“Sometime in the not-too-distant future it is quite possible we will be unable to pay for them. And why should we?
“Why should community landcare organisations comprising Canning ratepayers have to apportion a substantial part of their very limited reserve funds to insurance every year just to enable them to volunteer their time and effort to help fulfil the city’s environmental objectives.
“It’s really crazy.
“It’s unfair, it’s inequitable as it’s an impost on only on the incorporated landcare groups and it needs to end.”
Council will decide on the insurance policy on Tuesday.
