Quebec Budget 2018/19

Quebec Budget 2018/19

The Quebec budget on March 27 was full of election year goodies. After years of austerity and cuts it was certainly a good new budget for artists and cultural workers. Total investment in the Ministry of Culture and Communication will rise to $778 million in 2019/19, an 11% increase. This the largest new investment in culture in 20 years.

Media and culture

$113 million on youth and culture, including $35 million for cultural field trips for school daycare students;
$168.9 million in new funding for arts funding organizations and cultural tax credits, including $100 million in new funding to be divided between CALQ and SODEC, and $2.5 million to extend a tax credit for a first major cultural gift (of $5,000 to $25,000) from Jan. 1, 2018 to Dec. 31, 2022;
Increasing, from $15.5 million a year to $19.5 million, the contribution to the Quebec Cultural Heritage Fund;
$5 million to compensate museums that offer one free Sunday a month;
$5 million for large-scale cultural events in Quebec City;
$40 million for “various initiatives” that support the creation of digital cultural works;
$64.7 million for a tax credit to support digital transformation of print media;
$11.6 million to make digital video productions eligible for the film and television tax credit.

Anglo Secretariat

Last year, the Couillard government created a new Anglo Secretariat, which established Arts and Culture as a community priority. The 2018/19 budget provided the Anglo Secretariat with a $24.5 million budget and several projects involving arts and education are waiting to receive financial support.

Resources

http://montrealgazette.com/news/quebec/quebec-2018-19-budget-highlights

http://www.lapresse.ca/affaires/economie/medias-et-telecoms/201803/27/01-5158955-budget-leitao-la-presse-ecrite-obtient-une-aide-pour-son-virage-numerique.php

http://www.cqt.ca/courriel/web/738/8154/70765614c956b731847fdef55419ff0b

https://mailchi.mp/fb05fbd5e08e/budget-du-qubec-2018-1594357?e=7dddcb47b9

Guy Rodgers
Executive Director

Land Acknowledgement

ELAN is an official minority language organization within a country that recognizes two languages as official. ELAN is located in Tiohtià:ke, the original name for Montreal in Kanien’kéha, the language of the Mohawk—also known as Mooniyang, which is the Anishinaabeg name given to the city by the Algonquin. While we are based in this city, our projects have also taken place in many regions across Quebec.

We acknowledge the colonial origin of English and French in Canada, and recognize that both languages benefit from official status throughout the land. The province that we know as Quebec is an amalgamation of the traditional territories of the Innu and Inuit nations, Algonquian nations, as well as the Mohawk nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Kanien’kéha and Anishinaabemowin are but two of the original languages of this province; Atikamekw, Cree, Inuktitut, and Innu-aimun are also among the many Indigenous languages spoken across Quebec as majority languages, all well before French and English.

ELAN acknowledges the important work being done by First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples to revive the traditional languages of these territories, and their advocacy for the official status of Indigenous languages.