Despite presenting a budget Jan. 29, the Carleton Food Collective needs to bring forth more financial documents before receiving their levy, Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) vice-president (finance) Folarin Odunayo said.
The collective runs the Garden Spot, a pay-what-you-can food service on campus. The food collective has not received its levy from CUSA since November 2013, when levies are usually distributed. Odunayo said he is asking the club for financial information to ensure accountability before giving up the levy.
The Food Collective presented a budget at their general meeting Jan. 29. Odunayo said he was given the budget by a councillor that attended the meeting, and it is not enough to satisfy his requirements.
“What we’ve always asked for . . . was a statement of financial position, given by a bank or an auditor. That is an official document. It is our view that a budget can be made on Microsoft Word and anybody can do that,” he said.
Wesley Petite, the collective member who presented the budget at the general meeting, said CUSA is putting up more barriers between the collective and its levy, despite the collective’s efforts to meet CUSA’s demands for accountability.
“They keep asking for more as we satisfy their demands through our regular operations. I’m not sure how a statement of our financial position has anything to do with accessing our levy,” Petite said.
The final decision of what to do in light of the budget is still under review and will be decided at an executive meeting, Odunayo said. If the struggle between the two groups continues, Odunayo said the issue will be passed on to the Board of Governors.
“If this keeps dragging on . . . we’ll let the Board of Governors take care of it. The power lies with the [board] to leave the levy as is or take it away,” he said.
Petite said if the collective doesn’t receive the levy, the collective’s board will have to decide as a whole what to do, and though he severely dislikes the idea of pursuing legal action, he said it might become necessary.
“I just don’t see why we would have to take legal action against something that’s already owed to us,” he said.
