BC arts sector was growing in importance
People in BC’s arts, culture and heritage area are scratching their heads trying to understand why the provincial government would gut funding to organizations which fuel the province’s largest economic growth sector.
It’s a sector that drives tourism and provides employment in hard economic times, they say.
Indeed, notes the NDP’s gay arts and culture critic Spencer Herbert, by the government’s own estimates each dollar invested by government in the sector generates a return of $1.36.
Then there’s the economic multiplier effect of the provincial arts and culture sector.
For every five jobs in the arts sector, another is created in another part of the economy, suggests The City of Richmond’s April 2008 Arts and Economic Impact Study using provincial multiplier factors.
In Richmond that year, for example, for $52 million produced in wages by the arts sector, a resulting $12 million was generated in other sectors, the study notes.
According to BC Stats, the multiplier effect for the forestry industry is about 1.5 jobs created elsewhere for every job in the industry. For the mining sector, between 1998 and 2001, the effect was between 1.7 and 2.5, according to Statistics Canada.
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