Email Sample

FIND YOUR MLA (find them here)
Copy and paste from the template below or write your own from scratch! We encourage you to make it personal.

MAKE SURE YOU COPY IT TO the following:

Your MLA (find them here)
CC: FinanceMinister@novascotia.ca, MIN_CCTH@novascotia.ca, PREMIER@novascotia.ca, advocacy@nsarts.ca (The Honourable John Lohr, Minister of Finance, The Honourable Dave Ritcey, Minister of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage, The Honourable Tim Houston, Premier of Nova Scotia, and NS Arts coalition)

If you don't have time to call your MLA (which is always better), please email ASAP!

Dear [YOUR MLA'S NAME],

I’m writing to you, as my representative, to express my continued concern about the austerity budget that the government is tabling. I applaud the government’s recent walkback of some of the damaging proposed cuts. I hope that you will listen to the public and reverse the cuts to Arts, Culture & Heritage programs that allow us to serve those in our communities who can afford to lose these programs the least, to create and keep jobs, and to bring private and federal money into our communities because of the current investment.

[Please explain here what the arts mean to you, your loved ones or community. It is good for your MLA to know the effect these cuts stand to have on their constituents.]

I urge you to reverse the cuts to Arts, Culture & Heritage before it is too late. Layoffs can be reversed and contracts can be reinstated now but if this continues into the budget, those cuts will be irreversible.

The solution to the province's fiscal health is in realizing the sector’s potential and trusting in the economics of long term investment. According to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Arts, Culture & Heritage contributed $2.6 billion in GDP and supported 22,000 jobs in this province in 2023 alone. Their 2025 report Artworks: The Economic and Social Dividends from Canada’s Arts and Culture Sector, states that every $1 of federal investment in the arts generates $29 of economic activity. The ripple effect of these cuts will be disastrous, not just in the Arts, Culture & Heritage sector, but in tourism, hospitality, industry, in the grocery stores and gas stations, in the shops and services frequented by visitors to our communities.

Cuts proposed in your budget have landed on the shoulders of grassroots, non-profit and community-focused organizations. These cuts disproportionately impact Arts, Culture & Heritage in Nova Scotia, with devastating impacts on museums, youth-focused arts programming and education, grants for professional artists and groups, and budget cuts to organizations that work to support and engage cultural communities across our province.

On top of operational budget cuts, seventy-two (72) Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage grant programs have been fully or partially cut. This totals more than $14 million in reductions. Reducing investment in this sector not only deflates economic growth and sidelines innovation, but also represents a strategic misstep in the overall advancement of our province as a place to call home. These cuts are the most severe we have seen in decades. In an already under-resourced sector, they are catastrophic. The arts, culture and heritage sector has spent decades leveraging modest public investment to deliver outsized social, cultural, and economic returns in communities across Nova Scotia.

As my MLA, I count on you to bring this message to the government. It was heartening to witness the partial walkback of cuts and to know that we are still sometimes heard by our representatives. Please convey the message that this short-sighted slashing and elimination of Arts, Culture & Heritage funding neither balances the books nor makes short or long-term sense. This is not a one-year inconvenience. It is a decision that will have lasting impacts for many years.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

[Name]

[Title]

[Postal Code]

If you run an organisation, you can also use these templates.

Operating Recipients I was so pleased that the NS government made an historic investment in culture in its budget in 2023, and that investment has made a tremendous difference to the work of cultural organizations like YOUR ORGANIZATION, increasing employment and cultural products for both tourists and Nova Scotians alike. This increase, coming after decades of stagnation in provincial arts funding, was a desperately needed boost to the Arts & Culture sector, and we celebrated the government’s understanding of the benefits of investing in the arts. We were awarded an increase to our yearly operating support on a three year circle. We budgeted and planned based on this three year agreement.

Now, two years later, the government has implemented significant cuts to this program. This is disastrous, not just for the impact it will have on Arts, Culture & Heritage organizations across the province, but for the speed at which this change is taking place, with no warning or time to plan for this reduction. This decision jeopardizes the stability and viability of arts organizations across Nova Scotia, leaving many with few options. The inn savings the government seeks through cuts to grants and community organizations are proportionally small.

How Will Your Organization Make Up for Lost Funds?

IMPACT ON YOUR PARTICULAR ORGANIZATION In what is already a challenging financial environment for our patrons, we have few options but to pass this deficit on to our patrons through increased ticket prices and reduced programs for our community. This includes removing access to the arts for youth, seniors, and those with lower income, including marginalized communities. YOUR PARTICULAR ORGANIZATION offered countless opportunities for our neighbours and visitors to come together, to find community.