Campaign for Culture urges federal government to allocate one percent of overall spending to the arts
More than 30,000 people have emailed members of Parliament in support of the Canadian Arts Coalition initiative
Canada Council for the Arts in Ottawa.
LOCAL ARTS AND CULTURE organizations are speaking out against a potential 15 percent budget cut for the Canada Council for the Arts and Canadian Heritage.
The news comes as part of a wider federal initiative from Prime Minister Mark Carney to curb government spending by asking all ministers to find savings of 15 percent in their departments over the next three years.
In response, the Canadian Arts Coalition—a non-partisan advocacy movement of representatives from across the nation—has launched a Campaign for Culture that is calling on the Government of Canada to permanently allocate one percent of its overall spending to arts, culture, and heritage, up from 0.94 percent. For 2025-26, that means a total increase of $330 million: $140 million for the Canada Council for the Arts, and $190 million for the Department of Canadian Heritage.
“We are very concerned that the federal government is going to ignore their own platform to strengthen Canadian culture in a time when we need it most, and potentially cut our primary funding mechanisms even more,” the campaign states. It urges members of the arts, culture, and heritage community to send letters to their members of Parliament, as well as to Prime Minister Mark Carney; François-Philippe Champagne, the minister of finance; Mélanie Joly, the minister of industry; and Steven Guilbeault, the minister of heritage.
The campaign has been steadily gaining traction, with the coalition calling it “one of the largest in Canadian cultural history”. As of now, more than 30,000 emails have been sent to various members of government by people across Canada who are concerned about the proposed budget cuts. Thousands more are sharing the message on social media.
“A potential $54 million cut to the Canada Council for the Arts would be devastating,” wrote the Canadian Dance Assembly on Facebook. “With 90% of its budget allocated to granting programs, such a reduction would directly impact dance organizations and individual artists across the country. Further cuts to the Department of Canadian Heritage would compound the damage, potentially affecting essential support for training programs or presentation opportunities for example. These reductions would undermine the very ecosystem that supports Canada’s dance community.”
Arts BC echoed that sentiment, posting that “cuts of this scale would devastate artists and organizations in every community.”
The Canadian Music Centre wrote that the proposed budget cuts “threaten the livelihoods of over 850,000 cultural workers and the stories that define us. Arts and culture are not only vital to our mental, physical, and social well-being, they are a powerful economic driver and a reflection of who we are as Canadians. In difficult times, we need the arts to help lead us toward the future we want to create together.”
The Canadian League of Composers, meanwhile, noted that the campaign highlights “the importance of continued investment in Canadian arts and culture, especially at a time when our cultural and economic sovereignty is under threat.”
A post by the Playwrights Guild of Canada emphasized the timeliness of the campaign, noting that “as the House of Commons returns on September 15, there is a real and present opportunity to make Arts and Culture funding a crucial issue for Parliamentarians as they return to their work in Ottawa.”
The Campaign for Culture closes on September 22. The federal government is expected to table a budget sometime this fall, likely in October. 
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