Ontario government pumps $27 million in new money into arts

In stark contrast to B.C.'s cutbacks, the Ontario government has just announced a whopping $27 million boost to the arts.

In press release today, Ontario launched a new three-year Arts Investment Fund "to strengthen not-for-profit arts organizations receiving operating grants from the Ontario Arts Council".

Eleven million will be handed out in 2010-2011, $10 million in 2011-2012, and $6 million in 2012-2013.

“Our government is proud to celebrate, honour, and support our province’s arts and culture sectors," Michael Chan, Ontario's Minister of Tourism and Culture, said in the press release. "The new Arts Investment Fund will help our arts organizations continue the invaluable work they do to enrich our communities and strengthen our economy.”

In March, the B.C. government cut the B.C. Arts Council's core funding by almost 50 percent; after a prolonged outcry, it has reinstated about $7 million (of approximately $9 million) of that money from its Arts Legacy Fund. But it has also removed gaming funding from most arts groups. The B.C. Liberals have blamed the economy for the cuts.

According to Alliance for Arts and Culture figures, B.C. ranks dead last in per-capita spending on the arts, out of all the provinces and territories.

Comments

6 Comments

East Van Arts

Sep 24, 2010 at 12:43am

How strange.

The Liberals boast that we enjoy the second-strongest economy in Canada, outranked only by Alberta. And yet Ontario has found a way to increase its investment in the arts while the BC Liberals continue to cut away. Here, they continue to wreak havoc on an arts structure that has taken generations to build.

Readers should be reminded that the '$7 million' is NOT new money.

The Liberals took it from one arts drawer and put it in another. There is nothing 'new' about this amount. And nothing new about the Liberals' attempt to portray it otherwise.

Paul Ishmanob

Sep 24, 2010 at 2:00pm

Ontario has a $22B dollar deficit. Alberta $5B and BC has a $1.9B deficit.

Vinny vin vin

Sep 24, 2010 at 4:41pm

There is little doubt that BC's arts community is seriously underfunded. However, one should not look to Ontario funding and compare it to BC as if they were even reciprocals. Ontario supports a population of 13,134,455 million people, while BC only has 4,494,232 million. There are a lot more artists in Ontario, and this funding is relative to that population.

Aaron bushkowsky

Sep 25, 2010 at 10:15am

To VINNY VIN VIN: I think BC artists would be thrilled to receive one-third the funding Ontario receives... considering (according to you) we have about one-third the population. In that case BC artists would be getting between 90-100 million bucks. We're around 20 million right now.

Vinny vin vin

Sep 25, 2010 at 6:05pm

Hi Aaron,

Your point is exactly right and also why the articles argument is flawed. It is not taking into account the differences of scope between BC and Ontario.

"In stark contrast to B.C.'s cutbacks, the Ontario government has just announced a whopping $27 million boost to the arts."

"Whopping"? A extra 27 million dollars for Ontario a very small increase compared to the total 270.5 million we get annually. But in BC, an extra 27 million would be half the provinces entire arts budget of 42.5 million!

Apples and oranges.

You can see the stats here:

http://stopbcartscuts.wordpress.com/2010/07/01/bcs-arts-funding-by-far-t...

Aaron bushkowsky

Sep 26, 2010 at 5:55pm

The 42 million for BC is actually before the 2010 cuts. We are now around 25 million. An extra 27 million would bring us back to pre-2010 levels.