Whereas investing in arts, culture, and heritage has proven social, economic, and educational benefits for communities small and large across the province; And whereas the arts, culture, and heritage sector has been chronically underfunded in BC compared to other regions in Canada: Therefore be it resolved that the Province of BC increase the BC Arts Councils annual budgetin alignment with the BC NDPs 2017 campaign pledge of a 48 million annual BC Arts Council budget by 2021indexed for inflation, to a minimum of 58 million in the 202526 budget.
Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport Arts and culture and the not-for-profit sector are critical to the well-being of society and support vibrant, resilient, innovative, and engaged communities. A strong arts and culture sector contributes to a sustainable economy by encouraging creativity and innovation across sectors and in our workforce; the sector attracts business investment, increases exports, and directly impacts employment and tourism. The Province supports arts and cultural activity and participation through significant investments distributed through the BC Arts Council. The BC Arts Council supports the arts and culture sector and provides grants to organizations and individuals, with funding provided to over 155 BC communities in 202324. The total annual BC Arts Council budget is 40.08 million. In 2017, the provincial government included a mandate commitment to double the investment in the BC Arts Council over four years. BC Arts Councils total budget in fiscal 201617 was 24 million. Since then, the BC Arts Council budget has increased by 16.076 million as a result of base budget lifts, the Shared Recovery Mandate funding, and increased endowment earnings through special accounts. In addition, the Province provided three years of resilience and supplemental funding totaling 82 million through the BC Arts Council between 202021 and 202223.