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Budgeting for Dummies
Nov. 8th, 2025 08:04 pmThis past week, the Carney government unveiled its first Budget. It makes for some interesting and rather disheartening reading, especially for anyone engaged in artistic, educational or cultural pursuits:
https://budget.canada.ca/2025/report-rapport
Consider, for example, the cuts projected for Canadian Heritage, which is responsible amongst other things for national parks, museums, libraries, archives ... you know, all those third spaces that make our lives interesting and worthwhile. They're outlined as follows in Annex 3:
"To meet up to 15 per cent in savings targets over three years, the Parks Canada Agency (PC) will maximize efficiencies while continuing to deliver services to Canadians by refocusing its organisational structure and business unit functions to avoid duplication of work, as well as ceasing or reducing lower priority activities, such as library services."
As a federal retiree who devoted over 33 years of my career to working in government libraries, this hits a bit too close to home. It feels like a slap in the face, or perhaps more like the Government of Canada slamming the door shut behind me ... although at least I have a pension to show for it!
Joanne Laucius wrote an article for the Ottawa Citizen that goes into the cuts in a bit more detail:
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/federal-budget-cuts-ottawa
Okay, so what exactly is the Government's rationale for these cuts?
First of all, it wants to free up money, and lots of it, for Defence.
Secondly, it figures that the work done by librarians or educators or artists or archivists is either just an expensive and unnecessary frill or it's something that can be done equally efficiently (or maybe even better) by AI! I thought the article below was a pretty good summary of what we're up against:
https://www.404media.co/ai-is-supercharging-the-war-on-libraries-education-and-human-knowledge/?utm_id=01K9F9XTAM3WMACR5B2EMY54HM&_kx=oHkjrHJvte_xQmd6BtVhi3XyF695SCuGAH0CoHIefGffz-_bBde44HsGkMwH8i6L.U5D8ER
The Government made a big deal this time of separating out its Operational budget from its Investment budget. Personally, I'd have thought that educational and cultural enrichment were pretty good investments in people, in preserving our heritage and in ensuring a better (or at least not worse) future for our descendants and the generations to come. But what do I know?
They did at least announce that the Canada Strong pass would be back next summer. That's something I applaud, though it's a relatively small win. But meanwhile, nothing substantive about the environment, or promoting research, or knowledge transfer, or ... _______ (fill in the blank).
Yet despite everything I've written above, I reluctantly concede that I don't want to see this government fall on a non-confidence motion just yet, because the alternative looks so much worse!
https://budget.canada.ca/2025/report-rapport
Consider, for example, the cuts projected for Canadian Heritage, which is responsible amongst other things for national parks, museums, libraries, archives ... you know, all those third spaces that make our lives interesting and worthwhile. They're outlined as follows in Annex 3:
"To meet up to 15 per cent in savings targets over three years, the Parks Canada Agency (PC) will maximize efficiencies while continuing to deliver services to Canadians by refocusing its organisational structure and business unit functions to avoid duplication of work, as well as ceasing or reducing lower priority activities, such as library services."
As a federal retiree who devoted over 33 years of my career to working in government libraries, this hits a bit too close to home. It feels like a slap in the face, or perhaps more like the Government of Canada slamming the door shut behind me ... although at least I have a pension to show for it!
Joanne Laucius wrote an article for the Ottawa Citizen that goes into the cuts in a bit more detail:
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/federal-budget-cuts-ottawa
Okay, so what exactly is the Government's rationale for these cuts?
First of all, it wants to free up money, and lots of it, for Defence.
Secondly, it figures that the work done by librarians or educators or artists or archivists is either just an expensive and unnecessary frill or it's something that can be done equally efficiently (or maybe even better) by AI! I thought the article below was a pretty good summary of what we're up against:
https://www.404media.co/ai-is-supercharging-the-war-on-libraries-education-and-human-knowledge/?utm_id=01K9F9XTAM3WMACR5B2EMY54HM&_kx=oHkjrHJvte_xQmd6BtVhi3XyF695SCuGAH0CoHIefGffz-_bBde44HsGkMwH8i6L.U5D8ER
The Government made a big deal this time of separating out its Operational budget from its Investment budget. Personally, I'd have thought that educational and cultural enrichment were pretty good investments in people, in preserving our heritage and in ensuring a better (or at least not worse) future for our descendants and the generations to come. But what do I know?
They did at least announce that the Canada Strong pass would be back next summer. That's something I applaud, though it's a relatively small win. But meanwhile, nothing substantive about the environment, or promoting research, or knowledge transfer, or ... _______ (fill in the blank).
Yet despite everything I've written above, I reluctantly concede that I don't want to see this government fall on a non-confidence motion just yet, because the alternative looks so much worse!
