1 It’s not all bad news

Overall, the arts, culture, and heritage sector has very little presence within the budget and fiscal plan. Keyword searches within the budget for words related to our sector produce the following results:

• Heritage = 0 mentions
• Museum = 2 mentions (both referencing the Royal BC Museum)
• Art/Arts = 0 mentions 
• Culture = 0 mentions 
• Tourism = 9 mentions

By contrast, the term “housing” is mentioned 147 times, “health” is mentioned 184 times, “forest/forestry” is mentioned 25 times, and “tariff” is mentioned 91 times.

In most instances, funding for arts, culture, and heritage is maintained at status quo levels, but there are a handful of small new investments. The Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture, and Sport’s overall budget is increasing to $192 million in 2025/26 (up from $189 million in 2024/25). The Royal BC Museum is seeing a slight reduction in government funding to $31.480 million in 2025/26 (down from $36.531 million in 2024/25).

However, there is still some good news in Budget 2025, most notably “new funding for the First Peoples’ Cultural Council. This investment will support critical language preservation and revitalization to meet the growing demand for language instruction, as well as supporting learners and jobs for expert speakers, particularly Elders and First Nations women.”

Gaming Grants have also moved inside of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture, and Sport and the Ministry’s service plan aspires to “Continue to remove barriers for Indigenous not-for-profits to access all streams of Community Gaming Grants” and to “Distribute Community Gaming Grants to not-for-profit organizations that deliver ongoing programs that provide public access to and/or preservation of the arts, heritage or culture.”

Even though there is very little announced that represents new funding or government policy that supports the arts, culture, and heritage sector, there are also no significant reductions in funding. Given the current economic uncertainty, the maintenance of current funding levels is not the worst potential outcome.

2 BC Arts Council budget increases have plateaued

In 2017, the BC NDP promised to double the BC Arts Council’s budget, raising it to $48 million annually (note: accounting for inflation, this promise would be $58.67 million in 2024). The BC Liberals had frozen the BC Arts Council’s budget at $24 million annually since the fiscal year 2013-14. It received a $7.2-million boost to $31.2 million in 2017.

The 2025/26 budget proposes to raise the BC Arts Council budget to $39.156 million from $38.97 million in the previous fiscal year. The service plan for the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture, and Sport anticipates fewer BC Arts Council Arts Infrastructure Program funds being delivered in the next fiscal year due to increasing costs.

3  No clear vision or plan for the future

The new Standing Strong for BC strategic plan, a companion to Budget 2025, attempts to outline the BC NDP’s vision for supporting British Columbians during an uncertain time. It opens with: 

“Right now, the world is feeling uncertain. Reckless tariff threats from the United States are putting jobs, businesses, and our economy at risk. And families everywhere are being stretched by the cost of living. We can’t leave our prosperity to the whims of unpredictable forces from beyond our borders. And we won’t leave people to fend for themselves.”

Based on budget documents, strategic plans, and service plans, it is unclear what, if any, vision the Government of BC has for the future of the arts, culture, and heritage sector. On the whole, these documents tell the story of the status quo of the past several years, offering only incremental changes to how the government supports our sector and how it sees our sector supporting British Columbians. In a year where British Columbia was facing predictable challenges, an incremental budget and strategic vision would feel more aligned with the operational realities of our sector. However, it is clear that 2025 will be yet another unprecedented year.

For the past two years, the BC Coalition of Arts, Culture, and Heritage has advocated for the creation of British Columbia’s first cultural action plan because, through strategic partnership with government, our sector has the potential to support transformational change in the lives of British Columbians. Social isolation, political polarization, mis-/disinformation, and loneliness are all crises facing our society and are all things arts, culture, and heritage can address. Our sector can provide support and care that contribute to safer, healthier, more engaged communities – all essential components of ensuring that people don’t feel that they have been left to “fend for themselves.” 

4 Campaign promises and influence of the Green Party still uncertain

During their 2024 election campaign, the BC NDP promised to “build the heart of communities by investing in tourism, arts, and culture activities and providing stable year-over-year funding for fairs, festivals, and events.” Currently, there is no clear evidence of this promise being fulfilled in the 2025/26 budget documents. While it is possible that funding is included to support the establishment of an ongoing fund for fairs, festivals, and events, at the time of writing, signs seem to point to this funding not being included.

Additionally, the BC Green Party’s 2024 arts, culture, and heritage platform included support for increasing the BC Arts Council’s budget to $55 million annually, maintaining COVID-era investment programs, and developing the province’s first arts, culture, and heritage action plan. While the BC Green Party is working strategically to support the BC NDP’s razor-thin majority, at the moment, it appears that elements from the Green Party’s platform have not influenced Budget 2025.

5 Continued promised support for repatriation policies and initiatives

The service plan for First Peoples’ Cultural Council (FPCC) and the Royal BC Museum (RBCM) contains encouraging promises to support the repatriation of Indigenous arts, culture, and heritage. 

Highlights from the FPCC service plan include:

• Providing advisory services to communities engaged in heritage revitalization, documentation of cultural practices, including governance practices, repatriation, and the development of cultural infrastructure.
• Responding to growing interest in repatriation on the part of First Nations, governments, and museums around the world by undertaking research to build the case for investment.

The BCMA supports these initiatives and will advocate with both the provincial and federal governments that the necessary funding and policies are in place to support Indigenous communities and organizations like First Peoples’ Cultural Council to take on this critical work.

Highlights from the Royal BC Museum service plan include:

• Continuing repatriation of Indigenous Peoples’ belongings with an open, collaborative and community-led approach.
• Continuing focus on improving or building relationships with Indigenous communities whose collections are in the care of the Museum. 
• Working with the Province and partners, including the First Peoples’ Cultural Council, the B.C. Museums Association, the Museum-appointed Indigenous Advisory and Advocacy Committee, respective First Nations, and others to develop a strategy to prioritize the repatriation of ancestral remains. 
• Supporting the Province in the development of a provincial repatriation policy framework under the Declaration Act Action Plan.
• Continuing the work required for cultural transformation within the Museum and archives, including embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion in all policies, practices, procedures, and programming.

While the province directs the Royal BC Museum to “Continue the work required for systemic cultural transformation within the Museum and Archives,” the service plan does not outline a vision for how the institution will report on and make progress towards the goals set out in the 2021 Report to British Columbians which outlined steps to addressing internal workplace practices.

Lastly, while there are several references to “prioritizing modernization of the Museum infrastructure,” no clear vision for the future of the Royal BC Museum complex is offered, and no significant new funding is announced for infrastructure modernization.