A man sits on top of 'The Wave' sculpture on the waterfront in Halifax in February, 2018.Darren Calabrese/For The Globe and Mail
Sarah Faber is a writer based in Margaree, Cape Breton.
Late last month, the Cabot Trail Writers Festival announced part of their lineup for October. Authors include bestselling cartoonist Kate Beaton, acclaimed novelist Sharon Bala, and Governor-General Literary Award winners David A. Robertson and Daniel MacIvor. But the festival, where I currently work part-time and which is renowned for its celebration of literary culture, will also struggle this coming season, having been forced to lay off its artistic director, who is now working as a volunteer.
This is a story being written across Nova Scotia. The provincial government, facing a deficit for 2026, recently maintained its support for forestry, fishing and mining, the historic industrial bedrocks of the province’s economy, and instead eliminated $130-million dollars in funding to the Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage, which, among other things, provides grants to artists and arts organizations.
This is the logic behind austerity and retrenchment: We’ll bring them back when we can afford them. It’s an old idea: arts and culture are a luxury, pleasant to have but fundamentally unnecessary. When the economy struggles, fiscally responsible pragmatists make the difficult, adult decisions and “trim the fat.” The problem with this strategy is that it’s not pragmatic at all. It’s not even based on economic reality.
Nova Scotia legislature wraps spring session marked by protests over budget cuts
In Nova Scotia, arts and culture employ 16,000 people and produce more than $3.5-billion in economic output. Since 2022 the arts and culture sector has grown faster in Nova Scotia than in any other province. And that’s significant because, according to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, across the country, the arts and culture sector is expanding more quickly and creating more jobs for every dollar invested than oil and gas, agriculture, or manufacturing, adding $65-billion to the national GDP in 2024 alone. If we want to boost the economy, the truly pragmatic thing to do is to spend more, not less, on the arts.
We must stop viewing grants as handouts and see them for what they are: smart investments. Did Progressive Conservative Premier Tim Houston’s government do an economic analysis of the outcome of these cuts before making them? We don’t know because it refuses to say. Had it done so, perhaps it would have seen how self-defeating this budgetary decision will end up being.
The cuts slashed funding for arts organizations by 30 per cent when they were already operating on restrictive budgets. This is a devastating blow to marquee events like Celtic Colours, which showcases Nova Scotia’s vibrant musical culture and draws thousands of tourists, who spend more than $225-million in the province. Meanwhile, unable to pay a manager, the Inverness County Centre for the Arts, home to concerts and exhibits by local and internationally celebrated artists, can barely afford to keep its building heated. This is the story across the province: 12 provincial museums, almost half of all those in Nova Scotia, have closed, while a popular program that brought artists and writers into schools and communities has been completely eliminated.
But economic considerations are only part of the story. These cuts also fail to recognize the ways in which the arts immeasurably enrich our lives. They are core to our sense of identity and community. In the most fundamental way, they express who we are while bringing us together in public spaces in ways that few other activities can. The arts invite us to learn about ourselves and others while encouraging social bonds and connections that become more and more vital in an era of increasing polarization and isolation. Without them, we are poorer in every way.
So why is it that when so many of us are already struggling, one of the first things to be contracted and impoverished is the arts? I suspect it’s because people like the Premier know that artists are compelled to create, and will go on doing so whether they’re compensated or not – like Cabot Trail’s artistic director. And they know that communities will rally around their organizations, and staff and community members will do their best to keep their institutions alive, even when it means working for little or no salary. Across Nova Scotia, artists, museums, arts institution employees and volunteers are scrambling to do what they can, pouring time and energy into stanching the losses these cuts have created. Their efforts are valiant but unsustainable. Where governments support the arts generously, their cultures and economies reap the benefits.
A few weeks ago, the PC candidate won a by-election in Chéticamp-Margarees-Pleasant Bay, a newly created riding where I live. I desperately hope that the current government changes course rapidly, because although my new MLA won his seat, Nova Scotians are losing.