The head of a community centre in Saint John is "gravely concerned" about how proposed cuts to funding will affect programming for the city's youth.

At a Saint John council meeting Monday, the city manager endorsed a plan that would cut $70,000 of funding to 4 community centres in the city: the Carleton Community Centre, the Irving Oil Field House, the South End Community Centre and the Nick Nicolle centre.

The cut to funding is meant to help address the city's looming $12 million deficit, but Barry Galloway, the executive director of One Change, which operates the Nick Nicolle centre, said cutting funding would mean some very difficult discussions for staff.

"Our board is going to have to make some decisions," said Galloway.

"Do we start charging for programs and services? If we do that, a lot of the kids that we are engaged with in a meaningful way might drift away."

Galloway said the cut would have a significant impact on his centre and he's unsure how exactly the cuts will be handled by the city.

"Will it be an equal split between the five centres? We don't actually know how that's going to look," said Galloway.

In the report, the city indicated that the Millidgeville Community Centre wouldn't see any reduction of funds as they " had a significant reduction in funding of approximately $30,000 in 2018."

The proposed cuts are to be proportional to the funding amounts each of the other four centres get from the city.

The Nick Nicolle centre is listed as receiving $167,083 in the 2020 budget.

Centre a 'game changer'

Galloway said the centre will now try to show the dollar value of the services it provides the city, calling the opening of the centre a "game changer" for the neighbourhood.

He said there is a return on investment for the city and the loss of the centre would have a huge impact on the at–risk neighbourhood.

At a Saint John council meeting Monday, the city manager endorsed a plan that would cut $70,000 of funding to 4 community centres in the city: the Carleton Community Centre (pictured,) Irving Oil Field House, South End Community Centre and the Nick Nicolle Centre. (Julia Wright / CBC)

The centre offers an after-school program for youth, 17 different evening programs and a makerspace.

Galloway said, while the city doesn't provide a lot of money to the centre, it's core funding the centre can use to leverage other funds.

Without that funding, Galloway said more money would have to come from the private sector, which can be unstable.

"We had funding from an organization, a funder, for five years for our after school activities," said Galloway.

"But they changed priorities, so we no longer got that funding."