CanCult.ca

The Post has more on the Tories Gone Wild round of arts cuts.

In the absence of explanations from the federal government about its recent cutbacks to the cultural sector, the shock and anger of stakeholders and opposition parties is rushing in to fill the dead air.

Since Aug. 8, the federal government has cancelled at least six cutural and media subsidy programs totalling $18-million a year. In all cases, the cuts have been quietly communicated to stakeholders, with no official public anouncements.

Stephen Waddell, national executive director of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) reacted to the loss of a pair of grants worth $300,000 to the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada as well as the cancellation of the $1.5-million Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund and the $2.5-million National Training Program in the Film and Video Sector. “These cuts are shocking and short-sighted, and they certainly aren’t business friendly,” wrote Waddell in a statement. “Support for arts and culture are among the most efficient investments a government can make.”

Previously:

• “Counterintuitive and counterproductive”
• Tories slash arts funding… and then stab it a few times more for good measure
• A no-brainer indeed
• Wondering what those arts grants funded?
• Tories axe more arts programs