No comfort as Statscan confirms cuts

Statistics Canada, in a survey published today about spending in all relevant departments federally, provincially and municipally, confirmed what the magazine industry already knows about -- major spending cuts -- even as overall spending on culture increased slightly.

Federal funding for book and periodical publishers declined 11.6% to $162.1 million between 2002-o3 and 2003-o4. This was attributed largely to drops in federal contributions to the Canadian Magazine Fund and the Book Publishing Industry Development program by the Department of Canadian Heritage.

"All three levels of government spent more on culture in 2003/04 than in the previous year, although the rate of growth slowed in federal government spending," said the report, which can be found at the Statistics Canada website.

In total, the three levels of government spent $7.3 billion on culture, up 4.1% from the previous year. This was slower than the pace of growth of 5.2% and 6.6% in preceding years.

The federal government spent $3.5 billion on culture in 2003/04, up 2.2% from the year before. The provinces and territories spent $2.2 billion, up 4.3%, while municipal allocations amounted to just over $2.0 billion, up 7.1%.

The report provides breakdowns by province, and a history of cultural spending in constant dollars.