By Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism Initiative
After months of lobbying efforts and a series of well-attended protests in cities and towns around the province, the Front Commun pour les Arts (FCA; Common front for the arts) said in a statement that it was “celebrating a major victory” after Finance Minister Eric Girard tabled the 2025 budget.
The budget announced $200 million in funding for the Conseil des arts et lettres du Québec (CALQ; Quebec council for arts and letters) over the next three years, in line with the demands of the FCA. The CALQ is the government agency which supports the development of arts and literature across the province; according to its website, it provides grants to more than 1800 artists and 900 organizations every year.
FCA member organizations argued that without guaranteed funding, the survival of Quebec’s unique culture was at risk as artists chose to leave the arts.
“The new funding provides a first step toward stability for the sector and must mark the beginning of sustained collaboration to address the systemic and structural challenges that have multiplied in recent years,” the FCA said in a statement. “These issues have had devastating impacts not only on the working conditions of artists and cultural workers, but also on the quality, accessibility, and the reach of their artistic works across the province and internationally.
“It took a historic mobilization by the artistic communities to achieve these gains,” they said.
“The progress achieved through the actions surrounding le Front commun pour les arts and its allies must now serve as a foundation on which to build a sustainable and thriving cultural sector, in the best interest of Quebec society as a whole.”
Caroline Gignac is director general of the Conseil québécois du théatre and co-spokesperson for the FCA. She said the funding would bring much-needed “oxygen” to give artists “the energy to continue our efforts to preserve our cultural identity, maintain the vitality of our artistic ecosystem and improve artists’ socio-economic conditions.”
Gignac said although the exact use of the funding would be up to the CALQ, the money would give some much-needed structural stability to Quebec’s arts sector amid wider economic uncertainty. “The sector is facing challenges, but it was hard to address the challenges when it felt like everything was collapsing.”
The CALQ is “the best vehicle to ensure that money gets into the hands of artists through grants and support to organizations,” said Nick Maturo, director of programming at the English Language Arts Network (ELAN). Maturo said Finance Minister Eric Girard, who is also minister responsible for relations with English-speaking Quebecers, “definitely gets it when it comes to the importance of culture.”
Maturo emphasized that English-speaking artists can apply for CALQ grants in English if they choose, and ELAN offers free support services to those who may be interested in applying.
“A lot of decisions need to be made from here on out on how [the funding] gets into communities to create compelling quality arts and cultural content – it is a question of being engaged in the process for community groups, for artists and for English-speaking Quebecers,” he said. English-speaking artists in the regions in particular, he said, needed “to be part of that conversation.”