Nova Scotia Arts Funding Cuts: A Warning Shot for the Arts in Newfoundland and Labrador

Recently, the Nova Scotia government introduced devastating cuts to arts and culture in their provincial budget. For those of us working in the sector, this is a red flag.

Moments like this rarely stay contained within one province. Other governments, particularly in the Atlantic region, are watching closely to see how the public responds. Nova Scotia is the canary in the coal mine. If cuts like these are met with little resistance, they can quickly become a model for policy elsewhere.

Decisions like these reveal a fundamental misunderstanding of the role culture plays in public life. The arts are treated as decorative, nice to have when times are good, but expendable when budgets tighten. In truth, culture is the primary way that society develops the human capacity that shapes its future.

Culture shapes how we learn, how we empathize, how we imagine possibilities, and how we understand ourselves as communities.

Don’t believe me? Consider the culture of the United States at present.

We, in Newfoundland and Labrador, need to pay attention and proactively fight for arts and culture.

The Economic Argument

If we want to go with the lowest hanging fruit we should begin with the argument governments most often claim to prioritize: the economy.

Across Canada, arts and culture contribute more than $130 billion to the national economy and support over one million jobs. Cultural activity drives tourism, fills hotels and restaurants. Festivals, performances, film and television production, music, and visual art all ripple outward into the broader economy, supporting surrounding industries and small businesses.

In practical terms, culture circulates money through communities. When local people are hired those people spend money locally. When production and events bring people here, those people spend money locally.

And yet, when budgets tighten, arts funding is often treated as expendable.

That disconnect reveals how narrowly culture is understood in policy conversations.

But as I said, the economic case, is to me, the lowest hanging fruit. The economic argument just scratches the surface of what the arts actually contribute to a society.

Human Capacity and Transferable Skills

One of the hats I wear is as a dance studio owner and teacher. Each week, hundreds of people come through our studio doors. The majority of them will never become professional dancers. And even those who pursue dance professionally will go on to have many chapters in their lives. They will become teachers, entrepreneurs, administrators, scientists, parents, and community leaders. Dance will be one page in a much larger story.

Yet, what happens in the studio matters anyway.

Students learn discipline. They learn teamwork. They meet challenges that feel impossible and discover that persistence changes what they are capable of. They build confidence through repetition and effort.

They cultivate and practice resilience, self-awareness, and the ability to collaborate with others. These are essential transferable skills.

Arts education is not primarily about producing artists. It is about developing capable humans. That kind of human capacity is invaluable.

Identity, Empathy, and Community

The arts create shared experiences. They bring people into the same room to encounter stories, ideas, and perspectives beyond their own. That process deepens empathy and strengthens social connection.

In a place like Newfoundland and Labrador, culture carries something even deeper.

Our music, stories, theatre, dance, and visual art hold the memory of who we were and who we are becoming. They pass language, humour, grief, and resilience from one generation to the next. Culture is one of the ways a place recognizes itself.

Without cultural investment we lose part of the mechanism through which communities understand themselves. And it raises a larger question: what makes people choose to stay in a place, to live, work, raise families, and contribute to their community, if not a shared sense of culture and belonging?

On Impact Measurement

One of the reasons the arts are often misunderstood in policy conversations is that their impact can be difficult to measure.

Much of the impact of arts and culture is difficult to quantify.

Arts advocates are working to develop better ways to measure and demonstrate the value of cultural activity. Economic data helps. Attendance numbers help. Surveys and social impact research help.

But those tools only capture part of the story.

Most of us carry a lived example of the arts shaping our lives. A performance that shifted our perspective. A teacher who opened a door we didn’t know existed. A piece of music that helped us understand something about ourselves or someone else.

These moments rarely appear in economic reports, but they are real. They shape how we think, how we empathize, and how we move through the world.

Renewable Resources

And this brings us back to the conversation about resources.

Oil and gas are non-renewable. They will eventually run out.

What remains are people.

The long-term resource of any place is its human capacity: creativity, curiosity, empathy, and the ability to imagine new possibilities.

The arts cultivate that capacity.

We have only begun to understand what that potential looks like. Arts engagement can strengthen education systems, support youth belonging, contribute to preventative mental health, and revitalize communities.

The question is not whether the arts deserve a place in public policy.

The question is how seriously we are prepared to fight for it.

Advocate for the Arts in Newfoundland and Labrador

If the arts matter to you, there are simple ways to help ensure they remain part of our public life:

Write to your MHA.

Contact the Minister responsible for Arts and Culture, Minister Andrea Barbour. Let the department know that cultural investment matters to citizens.

Attend and support local arts events.

Share your positive experiences of the arts publicly. Social media posts, or conversations in your community help keep arts and culture part of the public dialogue.

Ask questions during elections. When candidates knock on your door, ask what role they believe arts and culture should play in the future of the province.