UPDATE: HERITAGE IN CRISIS 

The Fall issue of Heritage BC Quarterly featured a pretty bleak assessment of the provincial heritage program. Copies of the newsletter were sent to all 85 MLAs, along with a cover letter from Heritage BC President, Larry Foster.  The purpose was to underscore the seriousness of the current state of affairs: 

After 20 years, Heritage BC’s provincial funding has been eliminated.  The Heritage Legacy Fund society has now stepped in to keep us going, but only by cutting grants to B.C. communities.  Gaming grants to heritage organizations have also been virtually wiped out, and all of the provincial Community Heritage Planning Programs have been cancelled.  Almost nothing remains of what was once one of the best provincial heritage programs in Canada.

• In response, the Honourable Kevin Krueger, Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts, who is responsible for heritage programs, proposed a meeting on January 21, 2010. Heritage BC’s position is that several things need to happen to return the provincial heritage program to a state of health and vigor:  In order for the Heritage Legacy Fund to continue supporting the important work of Heritage BC while at the same time meeting the growing demand for financial support from B.C. communities, the provincial government should make a second investment of at least $5 million to the Fund endowment.
  
  
• The government must reinstate gaming funding to heritage and culture. For many of our members and other community organizations this is an essential and often unique source of support.
  
  
• The budget for the Heritage Branch should be restored to allow at least the retention of current staff levels and the return of basic services to communities, particularly the Community Heritage Planning Programs. Without a properly functioning Branch, the province really has no heritage program.
  
  
• The government needs to find a sustainable solution for the Provincial Heritage Properties.  This chronic problem is sapping the strength of the province’s heritage program, which affects all of the other priorities.

Mr. Krueger’s position was familiar and predictable.  Recent decisions by his government, including the termination of funding for Heritage BC, were driven by the world-wide downturn in the economy.  His government has been forced to adopt deficit budgets, for which, in the Minister’s own words, they are ashamed. Worse, there is not much hope for improvement, at least in the short term – we should expect more of the same for the next couple of years.  And the government’s top priority is to put an end to deficit budgets. None of this is unexpected.

Heritage BC’s position, however, is that government will return to a position of greater fiscal health as the economy recovers.  There are clear signs that this is happening already.  We can also be sure that there will be more good news and government spending before the next provincial election campaign, three years hence.  We believe that heritage has a better claim than most to consideration as we return to a state of normalcy, a claim based not just on the harsh treatment of recent months, but on decades of slow but persistent erosion of government heritage programs, policies and funding.

Heritage BC plans to follow up our meeting with Mr. Krueger with a detailed proposal of how a renewed heritage program can be achieved.  In the meantime, it will be essential to keep the heritage issue on the agenda when other priorities clamor for attention as we enter the post-Olympics phase and the government gets back to work.

Read the 'Heritage in Crisis' Special Issue
» Fall Quarterly 2009 pdf