A campaign calling on the federal government to protect the arts sector from budget cuts has amassed more than 48,000 signatures, according to the organization behind it. The Campaign for Culture, led by the Canadian Arts Coalition, is requesting the government permanently allocate at least one percent of its annual spending to arts, culture and heritage, up from its current allowance of 0.94 percent. Specifically, the campaign is looking to ensure new investment of $140 million to the Canada Council for the Arts, and $190 million to the Arts Programs of Canadian Heritage. According to coalition committee member Chris O’Neill, the campaign is on track to being one of the “most engaging in Canada’s cultural history.” More than 9,500 Canadians have sent more than 48,000 letters in just over three weeks, from every province and territory, reaching approximately 95 per cent of MPs so far, she said. The campaign comes after Prime Minister Mark Carney tasked ministers with finding savings of up to 15 per cent in day-to-day spending over the next three years, ahead of his first federal budget this fall. If the government were to carry out arts and culture cuts, it would have a “devastating” effect on the sector across the country, said O’Neill. “There are organizations that are meaningful to their communities and to the economy of their regions that will not survive, not just a cut, but a lack of investment,” she says. “This means job losses and losses to the economies of those communities.” The threat of budget cuts looming over the arts feels like a double blow to an industry that has barely recovered after the shattering effects of the pandemic, says Elliott Hearte, executive director of non-profit arts support organization Arts B.C. “The pandemic highlighted both the importance of arts and culture to individual and community wellbeing, and the precarity of the sector,” he says, describing how the societal benefits of creative exploration span everything from economic growth to improving community and mental health. “Creative practice opens us up as human beings, allows for navigating difficult ideas or challenges, connects us as people and community,” says Hearte. “I think it would be a challenge for any of us to go a day without engaging with art, culture, music, film or literature in some way.” According to the B.C. government’s website, the province has the highest share of artists in the workforce in Canada, with almost 40,000 creatives living and working locally. Approximately one in five artists in the country call the province home. “There are so many incredible artists, organizers, teachers, public service workers, parents, community and cultural leaders, working to keep public access to arts and culture alive - we need more voices to raise the alarm,” says Hearte. “We are at risk of losing something so integral to our lives and country, something so embedded in who we are, that we can’t even see it as something that could be lost.”
