Community rallies against budget cuts
$130 million in cuts to grants will impact arts and culture funding, education, mental health services
Mel Kearney, an artist and Eltuek Arts Centre’s Curator, led a rally on Wednesday afternoon to protest widespread budget cuts that reduce or eliminate almost 300 operational grants for community organizations and programs.
The provincial government’s budget cuts target funding for arts, culture and tourism programs, initiatives supporting Mi’kmaw and African Nova Scotia communities, disability supports, food security, mental health services, and education.
“We were going to read the thirteen pages of cuts, but there are so many of us impacted, it would take too long to read,” Kearney told the crowd of more than a hundred people outside the provincial building on Prince Street in Sydney.
“This budget says culture is optional. It is not!”
For organizations that receive annual funding from Arts Nova Scotia and Community, Culture, Tourism and Heritage, including Eltuek Arts Centre, the cuts will result in a 20 percent reduction in operational support alongside significant decreases in project funding, grants to organizations and individual artists, and other programs.
The rally in Sydney was one of many province-wide demonstrations calling on the Houston government to reverse the cuts. Halifax’s Culture is Critical rally at Province House filled Granville Street with music, poetry and chants, while others gathered in Yarmouth, Wolfville, Annapolis Royal, Shelburne, Liverpool, New Glasgow, and Antigonish.
On Tuesday, hundreds of people from across the province took part in the Shoulder to Shoulder rally in Halifax to oppose cuts to funding for Indigenous and environmental protection programs, including the elimination of funding for the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre, the Mi’kmaw Summer Games, and Mi’kmaq services in schools.
In Sydney, the owners of On the Same Page bookstore organized a letter writing event, where dozens of people packed the bookstore to write letters to their MLAs to protest the cuts, including the elimination of a $700,000 publishers assistance program that supports local publishers and authors.
Local author Leslie Crewe joined the crowd at the provincial building on Wednesday to share her concern for local literature, along with artists, Gaelic language speakers, early childhood educators, and representatives from community organizations and programs.
Mel Kearney called on the crowd to take action and stand up against the government cuts.
“Art has been important since our ancestors, the Neanderthals, painted in caves,” she said.
“For every conductor, rug hooker, language keeper, songwriter, and young artist, and everyone who was and everyone who is yet to be – call and write your MLAs. Tell your neighbours, your friends, your families. Tell your co-workers that this is our home. These are our stories. Our art. Our people. We will stand behind them. And we will see them succeed.”
To share your concerns with your MLA, check the Nova Scotia Legislature for contact information.
Not sure who your representative is? Use the MLA Finder.
View the full list of budget cuts to grants here.
All photos by Steve Wadden.
