The RM of Portage is asking community groups to submit funding requests for the 2017 fiscal year. CAO Nettie Neudorf says council has included advertising for those requests in its budget process, noting having that information ahead of time will help tremendously. Neudorf says sometimes requests for funding come in after all the budget deliberations have been completed, so they're asking people to submit their requests by October 3rd in order to have everyone's information available for review. She notes many community groups do apply every year, but for organizations which aren't aware of the timeline it's a good reminder to get their request in as early as possible. Neudorf adds council can then decide what the budget commitments will be when they prepare to issue community grants.