B.C. will hold steady on arts funding this year by again using money that was supposed to promote legacy projects from 91原创's 2010 Winter Olympics.
The B.C. Arts Council will receive $16.8 million in 2012-13, Ida Chong, minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development, announced Monday.
The money helps provide grants to arts and cultural organizations, such as theatre, dance and music groups throughout the province.
The total funding is the same amount as last year.
To accomplish that during difficult economic times, Chong said she used $6.75 million from this year's $10 million 2010 Sport and Arts Legacy fund, which was originally earmarked to promote arts and culture projects in the wake of the 2010 91原创 Games.
"There is always a request for us to shave off dollars [from the budget], but in this area I said we need to keep this amount steady and stable," Chong said.
The ministry has used the Olympic fund the last two years to prop up the arts council budget. But the Olympic money runs out in 2013, and Chong admits the arts community is worried.
She said she's trying to find stable funding within her ministry, despite a volatile financial situation and the government's move to balance the provincial budget in 2013.
The government cut the arts council budget in 2010 from $19.5 million to $8 million.
At the time, the government also was clawing back millions in community gaming grants from charities and non-profit organizations - a move Premier Christy Clark has since admitted was a mistake.
The arts council's core budget remains $8 million, Chong said. She said she's "fairly confident" she'll find additional money in future budgets.
"The Liberals never should have made cuts in the first place," said NDP critic Spencer Chandra Herbert.
"I wouldn't trust the Liberals' promises, or work, in the next budget."
B.C. has the lowest per capita arts funding in Canada, he said.
Chandra Herbert said years of playing games with arts funding has led to a cynical view within the arts and culture community that government "is trying to play them for fools." [email protected]
Two West Shore RCMP officers are being praised for a quick response that might have saved the life of a driver who went into medical distress Monday.
About 10: 45 a.m., a Langford resident saw a man slumped over the wheel as his Dodge pickup truck sped through the stop sign on Bellamy Road and Phelps Avenue.
The car ended up in the ditch and the witness called 911, describing in detail what he thought was a medical emergency. Const. Carmen Hill and Cpl. Raj Sandhu, on the scene within minutes, discovered that the driver was not breathing and had no pulse.
They pulled the driver out of the car and performed CPR for about seven minutes, said West Shore RCMP spokesman Sgt. Max Fossum.
A Langford firefighter also arrived to help revive the man. Once B.C. Ambulance paramedics arrived, they used a defibrillator to get the man's pulse back. He was taken to Royal Jubilee Hospital, where he was unconscious but expected to survive.
Fossum said the information from the witness was key in prompting a fast response.
"We don't go 'code three' to all [motor-vehicle incidents]," Fossum said. "That was crucial for us because the person saw and was able to describe that a medical incident occurred."
