Budget 2026:An Historic Arts & Culture Budget, With One Notable Gap
by Simon Mallett, Executive Director
A year ago, in the run-up to Budget 2025, the Canadian Arts Coalition (of which the Rozsa Foundation is a steering committee member) launched an emergency letter-writing campaign to try to avoid a 15 per cent cut to the budget of the Canada Council. Thanks in part to that advocacy, Budget 2025 held firm on much of the arts and culture funding and even saw a very small increase to Canada Council funding.
What a difference a year makes.
Budget 2026, titled Masters of Our Destiny, now frames arts and culture as part of national sovereignty and backs it with historic investments valued at roughly $4 to $5 billion over five years. Yet despite that scale, the Canada Council saw a proportionally small increase: an additional $20 million over three years, proposed to support theatre, dance, music and other live performance.
That said, there's still some very good news in the budget for the arts ecosystem.
What's in the Budget
The headline is a proposed Canada Creative Credit. Combined with the basic personal amount, it would make up to $45,000 a year of net income from original creative work tax-free. For the many artists earning modest, irregular incomes, that is a meaningful change. Ottawa will consult the sector first, with details due in the Spring Economic Update 2027.
Beyond the Canada Council funding, another $25 million would flow through two Canadian Heritage programs, the Canada Arts Presentation Fund and Building Communities through Arts and Heritage, for festivals and events marking Canada's 160th anniversary in 2027.
Access to arts and culture also gets a boost, with admission to national museums becoming permanently free for anyone 25 and under. A new free national digital library would put Canadian books in readers' hands, and the Canada Book Fund would be renewed with ongoing funding. The Canada Strong Pass also returns for another summer.
The budget also proposes major investment in national institutions and media. National museums, the National Arts Centre and Library and Archives Canada would share $783 million over five years to repair facilities and sustain programming. The National Gallery would receive $60 million for touring exhibitions, and funding to CBC/Radio-Canada would increase by $300 million over two years.
More Advocacy Work to Do
The Canadian Arts Coalition's pre-budget submission called for a permanent $140 million increase to the Canada Council, a dedicated share of federal infrastructure funding for cultural spaces, protections for artists' work in AI, and Employment Insurance access for self-employed artists. The budget falls short on the scale and permanence of Council funding and leaves the other asks for another day.
Alberta Implications
Alberta has long received less than its share of federal arts funding. The Canada Council has recently moved to change that, committing a $25 million, five-year Alberta Focus Fund in June.
Budget 2026 adds to that momentum. The Creative Credit works by formula, not competition, so an artist in Lethbridge has the same access as one in Montreal. The festival money is competitive, and Alberta organizations will be well placed to apply.
So, keep an eye out for opportunities to take part in the Creative Credit consultation this spring, apply for Canada 160 funding, and keep making the case for cultural infrastructure and permanent Council funding (the Canadian Arts Coalition is always happy to welcome new members to work alongside us on that). Budget 2026 still has to pass in Parliament, but for a sector that spent last fall bracing for cuts, this is a budget worth building on.
Rozsa Foundation Celebrates Alberta Arts on Parliament Hill
A week and a half before the federal budget was announced, the Rozsa Foundation brought a spotlight on Alberta’s arts community to Parliament Hill. The lunchtime celebration in the Speaker’s Salon was presented with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and had genuine cross-party backing. MP Matt Jeneroux of Edmonton Riverbend (LPC) led the event, and MP Greg McLean of Calgary Centre (CPC), MP Heather McPherson of Edmonton Strathcona (NDP), MP Martin Champoux of Drummond (BQ) and Alberta Senator Dr. Kristopher Wells co-sponsored it.
Guests heard from Speaker of the House of Commons Francis Scarpaleggia, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture Marc Miller, Canada Council CEO Michelle Chawla, Rozsa Foundation Executive Director Simon Mallett, and the sponsoring MPs and Senator. Each spoke to the value and impact of the arts. Works by Alberta artists from the Canada Council Art Bank lined the room, and the event closed with a performance by Calgary’s aloT of Poetry (Adetola Adedipe), whose words made the case more powerfully than any speech could.
The timing mattered. Coming after the Alberta referendum, the event sent a clear message to Ottawa: Alberta’s artists are central to the national cultural story, and they belong at the table where decisions about the country’s future are made. Four parties and both chambers stood together in support of Alberta arts. That is rare, and it is a foundation we intend to build on.
We are grateful to everyone who joined us. This was a first step, not a one-off. The relationships we started in Ottawa will strengthen Alberta’s advocacy in the months ahead, and we’re already planning larger gatherings to keep Alberta’s arts voice strong at the national level.
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