Cutting arts funding during econ downturn a mistake: Falcon
Posted January 11, 2012 6:35 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – It’s not everyday a politician says “We made a mistake.” But Finance Minister Kevin Falcon is saying just that after his government cut funding for arts and culture groups during the economic downturn.
“When will the reports on lotteries be released and funding be restored?” was a question posed to Falcon by a Vancouver city councillor.
His response:
“When we got hit with the downturn, we really locked down expenditures, including reducing the dollars that were being sent out to a lot of the arts and the cultural groups, and I think in retrospect it was a mistake how aggressively we did that.”
“As we made those decisions to reduce spending, I think that in that particular area… we probably went too far. So we should acknowledge when that happens and we should try and correct that, which we did by putting $15 million back into it,” he adds.
That $15 million is less than what was originally cut.
Premier Christy Clark is to respond to a review of gaming grants today. Falcon says he believes arts and culture are big economic drivers but he won’t promise more funding right now.
