As expected the 2017-18 Provincial Budget did not bring much good news, but based on other sectors, the
impact to culture could have been much worse. Reductions were made throughout the Ministry of Parks, Culture and Sport's budget; however, as stated by the government, "key programs and services remain strong and viable".
While funding for Wanuskewin, Western Development Museum and the Saskatchewan Science Centre remained status quo, both Saskatchewan Arts Board ($6.6 million) and Creative Saskatchewan ($7.3 million) were reduced by 5%
. In addition, the Culture on the Go grant of $800,000 was eliminated.
The Community Initiatives Fund was decreased by 3.6% to $8.89 million,
Community Sport, Culture and Recreation Programs was decreased by 51%, and Parks
saw increases and decreases, mainly decreases to Regional Parks
and Meewasin Valley Authority
, which resulted in an 11% reduction.
The Saskatchewan Heritage Foundation was reduced to $300,000 (from $504,000), and will become solely a grant program run through the Ministry. And, the Main Street Program, run previously through SaskCulture, and the Commercial Rink Sustainability Program, important to the recreation community, were both suspended.
Besides the cuts made to STC and an
one per cent increase in
provincial sales tax, there were
other areas
of this budget
that will have an impact.
SaskCulture is also concerned about cuts made to Saskatchewan libraries, which are funded through the Ministry of Education
. The seven regional library systems will be decreased by $3.5 million to $2.5 million in 2017-18; and the municipal library funding for Regina and Saskatoon Public Libraries, of $1.3 million, will be eliminated. Libraries have a crucial role in helping to deliver cultural programming to Saskatchewan people, and these cuts may cause reductions in these types of services.
SaskCulture will be meeting with the Minister of Parks, Culture and Sport later in April and will have an opportunity to better discuss the implications of these funding decisions, and what we can look forward to in the future.
Federal Budget Focus on Infrastructure and Reconciliation
Released the same day as the provincial budget, today's 2017-18 federal budget had a positive outlook with a focus on infrastructure and support to Indigenous communities.
Last year, the Canadian government invested $1.9 million over five years to support key national cultural institutions. This year, the government will increase its investment to $1.8 billion over 10 years starting in 2018-19. Of this amount, more than $1.3 billion will be provided to provinces and territories through integrated bilateral agreements, on a base plus per capita allocation. The investment will be delivered through the second phase of social infrastructure funding.
A further $300 million over 10 years was identified to go the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund to help construct, renovate and better equip the creative spaces and hubs.
Budget 2017 is also proposing to invest $89.9 million over the next three years to support Indigenous languages and cultures. This includes $69 million to significantly enhance the Aboriginal Languages initiative; $14.9 million for Library and Archives Canada to support the digitization of existing Indigenous language and cultural materials; and $6 million for the National Research Council of Canada to develop, in collaboration with Indigenous stakeholders, information technology to preserve oral histories by converting speech to text, and creating other interactive education materials.
In addition, to celebrate and promote Canada's linguistic diversity, $80 million over 10 years will be invested to support the construction of community educational infrastructure in official language minority communities.
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