Special exemption for Rossland Special Olympian draws applause

By Andrew Zwicker

Some rare applause came out of council chambers gallery Tuesday evening after a victory was scored by a local mom fighting for her daughter. Jaime Santano, the mother of eight year old Sophia Santano, was pushing for Rossland city council to offer an exception to their new bylaw supporting non-profit societies which have been hit hard by the regional recreation breakdown. The policy was designed to help Rosslanders cover the astronomical costs for Trail Resident Program cards needed to use Trail recreation facilities. Sophia’s application, submitted on her behalf by the Special Olympics organization, did not fit the criteria set up by council for financial assistance. 

Speaking briefly yet passionately during the open floor period, Santano pleaded her case one final time, saying, “Please make this exception. You have the ability and opportunity to change her life forever for the better, the question is--will you?” 

As reported in the Telegraph, council adopted a new policy six weeks ago whereby they have set aside $20,000 for use by non-profit societies in order to overcome the burdens associated with the Trail Resident Program. Unable to subsidize the pass for all Rosslanders, council put a set of eligibility criteria in place for those applying. One of the key requirements was that each group applying must have a minimum of five participants. The community charter specifically bars municipalities from financially supporting single individuals (the George Grey funding issue fell afoul of this issue when the city denied his request for $10,000 in support). 

Upon learning that council had adopted this new policy, Jaime Santano got on the phone to see if she could help her eight-year-old autistic child Sophia get into the Special Olympics swim team, which practices at the Trail Aquatic Club.

Sophia, who also participates in the Special Olympics ski and golf teams, loves the water and desperately wanted to join the swim team. With a Trail Residency Program family card costing $1,000, however, there was a serious financial hurdle to overcome.

Initially the city of Rossland denied her request on the basis that her application did not fit the criteria as there was just one child in the group from Rossland. From there Santano went on a letter writing spree, sending out her plea multiple times over to the cities of Trail and Rossland as well as to the Ministry of Families and the provincial government. 

She received support from the City of Trail early on in her effort. Trail agreed to allow her or her husband to accompany their daughter to the Aquatic Centre without a TRP as her support worker. That lowered the family's financial burden to $339, given that now only Sophia would need a TRP card. 

Santano’s letter writing campaign came to a close with her impassioned plea before council this past Tuesday night just before they discussed and decided upon her application.

Although city staff recommended denying the application based on the criteria set out in the new policy, Santano’s request was met with sympathetic ears by councilors.

“I hope we approve it. I’ll be embarrassed if we don’t,” commented Councillor Hanne Smith.

“Our policy says we support people with disabilities, seniors and children. If we don’t support this, then we need to change the language, and I think we should,” added Councillor Kathy Moore.

“ I don’t care what we have to do to amend the policy, but this is a good example of why we need to find a situation that supports all of our community with regards to using the few facilities in Trail that are creating a lot of social and health issues for people. I understand the legislation says it can't be one individual, so we will have change the policy or legislation,” said Councillor Jill Spearn.

There was a worry and concern that if (on only the second application to the new policy), council was offering exceptions that could open up the question of, 'where do you draw the line?'

“I’m thinking this is just the tip of the iceberg, and if I can mix up some clichés, the top of a very slippery slope,” noted Councillor Laurie Charlton. “Originally I was in favour of adopting the policy with the higher limit (five participants minimum) and doing it on a one year test basis. I’m beginning to think that perhaps we’ve made a bit of a mistake here and we should, along with this application and other applications, be prepared to reconsider the whole policy and possibly abandon the policy. If we allow this, how do we deny others and where does it end from there?”

It was noted in particular by Councillor Kathy Wallace that the application was not from an individual and that the applicant has far more than five members in its organization, although they don’t all live in Rossland.

Santano’s application was submitted by the Special Olympics who currently have over 30 participants in Trail, Rossland and Fruitvale and over 30,000 participants nationwide. Sophia Santano is currently the only member from Rossland.

Ultimately, council voted unanimously to support the application for $339 in financial assistance to cover the cost of Sophia Santano’s TRP card. In making the exception to the recently-adopted policy, council may have opened themselves up to making potentially difficult and emotional decisions on a case-by-case basis.

Mayor Greg Granstrom weighed in on the issue. “I think the policy is a good one. It’s not perfect and never will be and it allows council to make exceptions knowing full well that other situations will come forward and we’ll have to apply our criteria again to that and we'll have to say yes and no and maybe have to rethink the whole policy. We all know the emotions involved and will have to deal with that on a case-by-case basis if we’re going to be allowing exceptions.”

Spearn concluded the discussion by responding to the caution that this exception may bring many other groups out asking for exceptions. “Bring it on! I hope they do all come so that we have to sit down and figure out this recreation anomaly for our community. I’ve told people, 'get your groups together and we’ll talk to you about your particular situation'. There are often strong emotions in these cases and we all need to be reasonable. These are moral decisions we have to make on behalf of our citizens and I think this is a good one.”