Response Letter: Proposed Cuts to Canadian Heritage & Canada Council for the Arts
Open Letter to Ministers St-Onge, Freeland and Anand on the proposed cuts to Canadian Heritage and the Canada Council for the Arts
The SAA was recently a contributor to and signatory of an Open Letter from the Canadian Arts Coalition regarding the proposed cuts to Canadian Heritage and the Canada Council for the Arts.
The SAA is deeply concerned about these proposed cuts and the impacts on our province’s arts and cultural organizations. We understand and respect the need for fiscal restraint in a moment of high-interest rates and an affordability crisis. However, we cannot express enough our profound dismay at the choice to cut from government departments, cuts that go beyond the sunsetting of emergency and recovery programs to the core work of Canadian Heritage and the Canada Council. These organizations underpin Canada’s cultural ecosystem at this crucial moment in time. For cultural workers who are disproportionately affected by the affordability crisis, this is all the more frustrating. The letter calls for two urgent actions:
- Reverse all cuts to the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canada Council for the Arts, effective immediately, to ensure, at minimum, that these organisations can continue supporting the arts sector at current levels; and
- Provide increased investment to both the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canada Council for the Arts through Budget 2024 to truly invest in a sustainable future. Please see the full letter here.
Please share this letter and your concerns about federal arts and culture cuts broadly with your networks and elected officials.
