The federal government will devote $1.8-billion more to culture and recreation spending over the next decade, “modernize” the Broadcasting Act and Telecommunications Act, and spend more on official and Indigenous languages, according to the budget delivered on Wednesday by Finance Minister Bill Morneau. But anyone looking for details of the extensive cultural-policy overhaul promised by Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly since the government took office in 2015, will find scant evidence for it in the budget papers.
Most of the $1.8-billion in new money will be reserved for up to $1.3-billion in bilateral funding agreements with the provinces. “This investment will be delivered through the second phase of social infrastructure funding,” the budget says. Social infrastructure usually means things like day-care centres and affordable housing, as evidenced in a section of the budget that promises “new investments of $21.9-billion over 11 years to support social infrastructure in Canadian communities.”
It’s not clear what kind of bilateral cultural and recreation spending will fit into this envelope.
Robert Everett-Green – Globe And Mail – Marh 22, 2017.
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