Workers in the publishing industry are demanding the reversal of provincial cuts to the arts, saying programs are being lost that improve mental health and provide boosts to local economies.

The Ontario Arts Council (OAC) suspended five of its programs after the Doug Ford government cut $9.9 million from the council, taking it from $69.9 million in 2018 to $60 million this year. The cut, among others, has left small publishers without a key source of revenue, prompting concerns about what will happen to some of the only outlets in the province explicitly platforming under-represented voices.

“Arts are not efficiencies,” NDP culture critic Jill Andrew said at a Tuesday press conference at Queen’s Park, next to arts workers affected by the cuts. “There are deliberate contributions to our economy that come from the arts. And cultural workers are employees too, and they have a right to dignified work and dignified pay.”

Sheila Sampath, the editorial director of feminist magazine Shameless, said her outlet lost $10,000 as a result of the OAC cut — “a drop in the bucket” for the province but equivalent to nearly a third of their total operating budget.

With that grant, the outlet had started a paid youth advisory board, staffed by teenagers who tell the editorial board what they’d like to see in Shameless and how they’d like to be represented. The magazine held a fundraising drive, but if the funding isn’t reinstated and they don’t receive enough donations, they’ll have to suspend the board at the end of this month, Sampath said.

“It provides a sense of stability for young people. No matter what’s happening in the world, every month, there’s a place you can go where you can express yourself through the arts,” she said.

“What we’re essentially now doing is we’re pulling the rug from under them.”

Sampath called on the Progressive Conservative government to reinstate the arts funding.

“We are disappointed by the lack of vision by this administration and demand for the PCs to do a better job of understanding and imagining the critical role these projects play in forming healthy communities, providing cultural alternatives to youth and challenging our corporate media landscape,” she said.

Puneet Dutt, an editorial board member of feminist poetry and prose magazine Canthius, said there’s an economic argument to be made for government-funded arts.

She cited a study underway in the Greater Toronto Area through the Toronto Writers Collective, where she works as a facilitator, which found arts workshops helped people recover from addiction and other adverse situations, reduced stress and anxiety, and increased communication and leadership skills and overall well-being.

Dutt also cited a United Kingdom study that found patients suffering from chronic pain, depression and strokes, when prescribed an arts course, saved the government £216 per patient (CAD $350.76) through fewer consultations and hospital visits.

“This shouldn’t be a partisan issue,” Dutt said. “So to respond to the Ford government in terms of savings, well, that’s possible. The arts can do that, if you just look at the long-term benefits.”

Dutt stressed the importance of magazines being able to pay contributors. “Arts programming should not be the work of only those who are economically privileged can work for free,” she said.

Tourism, Culture and Sport Minister Lisa MacLeod’s office said the government is “a strong believer in protecting, preserving and nourishing the arts.”

“The OAC is doing its part to help support the government’s efforts to operate within the current fiscal climate and made the difficult decision to suspend the publishing organizations projects program earlier this year,” spokesperson Derek Rowland said in a statement. “We’ll continue to invest in Ontario’s arts sector to create jobs and drive economic growth across the province.”

The cut to the OAC is “part of a larger Conservative attack on the culture sector” that has cut $59 million from programs in the province, Andrew said — including axing the Indigenous Culture Fund completely, a 50 per cent cut to the Ontario Music Fund and a $7 million cut to Celebrate Ontario that led to the loss of grants from 71 tourism and arts festivals.

“I can’t state it enough that while these festivals are losing their funding, you have a festival like Jesus in the City, which is directly linked to homophobic and bigoted thoughts and ideologies, receiving funding,” she said.

When MacLeod was demoted from her previous position as minister of children, community and social services in June, Andrew wrote her an open letter demanding she reinstate funding that was cut and asking for an in-person meeting.

The letter went public in early July, and Andrew said she has not yet received a response from MacLeod.

Andrew said she’s looking at further action to pressure the government to reverse course on the cuts, including petitions and rallies.

Sampath said her outlet will find a way to continue somehow.

“We’ve done a lot with a little,” she said. “We’ve done a lot with nothing in the past, but I think the bigger point is that we shouldn’t have to.”

‘Arts are not efficiencies’: Publishing workers demand reversal of Ontario Arts Council cuts

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