Presentation to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services 2026
The Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services is
one of 11 permanent parliamentary committees of the Legislative Assembly of B.C.
Each year, the committee holds a province-wide consultation on the next provincial budget and presents a final report with recommendations to the Legislative Assembly. Presenters are given five minutes to speak and five minutes to answer questions.
Here is an edited transcript from the BC Museums Association’s Presentation:
“It’s nice to see everybody on this hot afternoon. My name is Leia Patterson. I’m the interim executive director of the B.C. Museums Association.
The BCMA supports institutions, staff and volunteers, as well as other museum workers of all varieties, with professional development, support, and advocacy, all on their behalf. Our association has over 450 members that represent every region in the province.
Definitions for museums, heritage organizations, arts, culture and heritage change depending on your source, and it’s hard to find consistency across them, even in government sources. So, when I say “museums” here in the next four minutes, I’m going to include in that a broad range of organizations and institutions, so please keep an open mind when I say “museums.”
I have just one ask today, and mostly that’s because I’m nervous. I have been on the job for three months now as interim ED, so this is quite a new process to me. Public speaking and math — both my not favourite things. I’m an anthropologist by schooling. This isn’t my realm.
Today I’m here to ask you to consider increasing the B.C. Arts Council annual budget to $58 million from its current $39.156 million, and I’m going to tell you why that relatively small investment is going to give you really big gains in the province
We already know that arts, culture and heritage matter to the economy. Culture generates $13.6 billion in direct economic impact on the GDP in B.C. That $13.6 billion is twice as large as the impact of agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting.
I’m going to say that again, because I found that a bit stunning: the $13.6 billion generated by culture is twice as large as the impact of agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, which is $6.4 billion (Hill Strategies, 2025). This is made possible by the 132,400 people who work tirelessly in arts, culture and heritage across B.C (StatsCan, 2023)
Knowing that arts, culture, and heritage have immense financial value and are a good return on investment, I can tell you it’s not only a good return for GDP, but it’s also a good return on investment for communities across the province.
Roughly 90 percent of museums surveyed by the Government of Canada are partnering or collaborating with the communities they serve to enhance programming, provide expertise and expand their audience reach (GCSHI 2025).
Organizations in this sector service community hubs, their cooling stations in hot weather, their venues for community events, their educational facilities, research facilities and tourist attractions.
Over 90 percent of museums in B.C. offered programming tailored for educators and school curriculum, bringing the classroom to life (GCSHI 2025).
Contrary to the belief that museums only hold really old objects, museums are always collecting things for the future so that the narratives of our current generations are available for future use.
There’s no identity or community without the belonging and sense-making that museums work tirelessly to preserve and protect. It’s much harder to restart and recreate these organizations than to maintain them, and we really need investment now, because the sector is barely hanging on.
More than 50 percent of BCMA’s institutional members have budgets under $200,000 per year (Internal BCMA data).
In B.C., 50 percent of museums report facilities that either require attention, are at the end of life or are unfit for service, and 33 percent of those museums had their last capital infrastructure project or renovation or improvements well over ten years ago (GCSHI 2025).
I’m asking you to increase the investment to B.C. Arts Council, and I know that budgets are tight.
I’m asking you to recognize the contributions that museums are making in this province and to our communities as the really good investment that they are and extend us a lifeline before it’s too late.
As a person who has worked in the sector for ten years, I can tell you that we do so much with so little. The COVID spending that happened during the pandemic was such a boost for us, and now that we’re sort of levelling off without it, it is a challenge.
We’ve seen a lot of museum closures across the country, lots of provincial governments reducing funding, and I’m asking you not to follow suit. It would be devastating.”
After the presentation, Committee Members are able to ask questions. Below is the question period.
Paul Choi (Chair): Thank you so much for your presentation. We will now turn to questions by members.
Rohini Arora: I just want to thank you for your presentation. One of my friends is a labour historian and worked on a book called Unions in the Bud, which she co-authored, and some of the stuff she found was from 1906-1907 up until the 1920s. And the predecessor of my organization that I worked for had a magazine that really captured that moment in time.
When you were speaking about collecting…. Like, archives are serious business, and I don’t think people understand. My cousin is also an anthropologist. So I have a lot of respect for what you do, the work that you do. But all of the staff that go into museums…. I hear you loud and clear about the importance, and thank you for being very direct, stating very clearly: “I’m asking you not to follow suit.” So I think that’s a line that’s going to stick with a lot of us today.
Thank you, Leia.
Paul Choi (Chair): Thank you very much. Any other questions?
Donegal Wilson (Deputy Chair): Thank you very much. It was a great presentation.
In my riding — I’m Boundary-Similkameen — eight museums, several heritage sites…. I’ve met with all the boards, and the message has been consistent — that they’re all just hanging on, doing way more with way less. So I hear you loud and clear.
The Grist Mill in Keremeos is celebrating 150 years next year. Can’t help but put a plug in. I’m pretty excited to do that with the community.
My question is around the bump in the funding. Do you have…? It’s obviously heritage, culture and arts. Of that bump, how much of it do you see going for core function of the museums?
Leia Patterson: If most of it could be core operating funding, I think the sector would be grateful. We see a lot of project-specific funding. The problem is it’s always short term, and then as soon as the project is over, it dies.
I see that in my own organization. I see that in a lot of our members. So the need for operating funding that keeps the lights on, keeps the HVAC system working and makes all those things possible…. Unrestricted funding, essentially, for operations is essential.
Rohini Arora: I’m just wondering about your operating funding. What would you say is the…? If you’re getting project-based grants, that’s one thing, but because those have limitations in and of themselves…. There’s how much you’re allowed to keep in terms of the surplus, what you have to give back depending on the HR envelope and the administrative portion of it.
So for operating funding, when you say from $39.156 million to the $58 million, and you’re saying most of it could be operating, is there sort of an average of costs that are just not being met in every…? And is some of that surplus from the project-based grant allowing you to help try and fill where you’re allowed to, obviously?
Leia Patterson: Yeah, I would say that if you asked B.C. Arts Council, I’m sure they would tell you their operating funding stream is oversubscribed. Most of them are. I have worked at multiple institutions who balance their staff salaries with project funding. If the project funding doesn’t come in, the staff get cut.
I’m not alone in that experience. I think that’s really common. I will say that in ten years, this is the first time I’ve ever had a permanent contract to keep my job beyond a project fund. That is standard.
Rohini Arora: Wow, so a lot of precariousness.
Leia Patterson: It is very precarious, which makes long-term planning, succession planning of staff, and maintenance of an organization really hard.
Rohini Arora: And just as a follow-up, are you finding that you’re losing people in the field because they’re going elsewhere to find security?
Leia Patterson: Yes.
Donegal Wilson (Deputy Chair): Yeah, from meeting with my own museum groups, it’s not just the precariousness of staff. It’s actually the precariousness of: can they turn the lights on?
My local museum holds a meat draw, and that’s how they primarily fund their building. Without the meat draw, there’s no building. So I think that the core funding question…. So my question is around…. Do you currently receive any core funding, guaranteed funding? Does each museum get it, or is it application-based each year?
Leia Patterson: It’s application-based.
Paul Choi (Chair): Okay, thank you so much for coming and presenting to us today.
Leia Patterson: Thank you for having me, and I hope you all make it to a museum event this summer.
Paul Choi (Chair): Certainly hope so. Thank you very much.
BC Museums Association - Annual Advocacy Calendar
Do you want to help advocate for a better future for BC’s arts, culture, and heritage sector but struggle to understand when is the most impactful time to use your voice? The BCMA has curated a short list of relatively simple, but highly impactful things you can do each year to make a big difference for our sector.
Info about the Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services here.
