Not sure where else to put this, and figured this is about the closest thread we have.
From “Backyard History” on FB:
🪧 History in New Brunswick is an endangered species. Already the lowest funded heritage sector in the country, it faces extinction in the coming budget.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick is literally surrounded by examples of places that don’t just preserve history, but profit from it. Nova Scotia, PEI, Maine and the Gaspe all invest in their tourism sectors and see massive financial returns.
New Brunswick, not so much.
(📸 Pictured: Visiting the museum for Andrew Bonar Law, the New Brunswicker who was elected Prime Minister of Britain. OR is it a ghost of heritage future if these cuts go through?)
Let’s talk numbers.
In 2022, the arts and culture budget was $13 million. Sounds like a lot, right? Well, the return on this investment, according to ArtsLinkNB, was a whopping contribution of $609.6 million to New Brunswick’s GDP, supporting 7,311 jobs.
Funding our culture, heritage and yes, our museums is not mere nostalgia — it is good economic sense!
Every dollar invested in museums multiplies through the local economy, hiring staff, supporting local authors and artisans, maintaining historic buildings, and keeping visitors here longer. That money flows to hotels, restaurants, cafés, pubs, and shops.
If you don’t like these cuts, you need to tell the people making the decisions. And angry Facebook reacts don’t count! But the Association Heritage New Brunswick has made it easy.
Using this spiffy site, it only takes seconds to generate an email to contact your MLA:
➡️ saveourmuseums.ca
Download that letter and email it to your MLA. You can find their contact information here:
➡️ legnb.ca/en/members/current
That’s it. It's like three clicks. It'll take like thirty seconds plus one email to stand up for more than 100 museums across this province. You can do it, I believe in you! And it really does matter to these MLAs!
As Canadian economist John Ralston Saul put it: “Cuts can’t produce growth or prosperity or effectiveness … We must force ourselves to concentrate on the content that is at stake.”
And what’s at stake is our story.
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I’ve always felt NB does a terrible job at marketing the province and our cities as tourist destinations, while all the other provinces (and regions) within Atlantic Canada do a pretty good job.
Why did NB take “the picture province” off the license plate? Could we not simply issue English and French plates with the slogan prominently displayed in either official language with the other official language less prominently displayed?
Not mentioned in the post (but something I’ve brought up on here countless times) is the abysmal interprovincial bus service (Maritime Bus deserves far more funding support). But also, I think it’s beyond a missed opportunity not having a bus service between New Brunswick and New England. A bus to Boston or even just Bangor would open up the province to an entire segment of US tourists in the US Northeast who either don’t drive, don’t fly, don’t take cruises, or simply prefer traveling by bus. A bus service to Bangor (or Brunswick to link up with Amtrak) would be huge for NB Tourism, and really wouldn’t cost that much to fund.
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Peace and Athabasca and Coppermine and Slave, And Yukon and Mackenzie—the highroads of the brave. Saskatchewan, Assiniboine, the Bow and the Qu'Appelle, And many a prairie river whose name is like a spell. They rumor through the twilight at the edge of the unknown, "There's a message waiting for you, and a kingdom all your own. — Bliss Carman
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