Canada to slash $42M in arts funding

OTTAWA, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- The Canadian government is planning to cut $42 million in arts and culture funding, sources say.

Citing unnamed sources, the Toronto Globe and Mail said the proposed cuts from the ruling Conservative Party would hit 10 Canadian Heritage programs. The plans have drawn protests from the mayors of Toronto and Montreal who have sent a joint letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the newspaper said.

The biggest cuts, which were approved in February, included the $11 million Canadian Memory Fund, an effort to digitize library collections and mount them online; the $3.6 million Culture.ca Web portal; the $528,000 Canadian Cultural Observatory; and the $5.3 million research and development budget of Canadian Culture Online, the Globe and Mail said.

A joint protest letter sent by Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay and Toronto Mayor David Miller received a cool response from the prime minister's office, the report said. Communications director Kory Teneycke told the newspaper, "To listen to some in the arts community and the opposition, you would think that there's blood in the streets."