Nova Scotia Music Workers Are Ready to Keep Doing the Work

Thousands of artists and arts workers across Nova Scotia have spent the last eight months organizing after Premier Tim Houston announced cuts to dozens of arts programs across the province. The proposed cuts, announced on February 23, came as part of the 2026-27 provincial budget's effort to save $130 million against a provincial deficit of $1.25 billion resulting from record-high capital spending, rising healthcare costs, tax relief measures, and increases in U.S. tariffs.

In that time, the public protested. On March 4, approximately 2,000 people, among them artists and arts workers, rallied outside the legislative assembly at Province House in Halifax. Less than a week later, Houston publicly apologized for missing the mark with the proposed cuts and reinstated $53.6 million in support of culture, tourism, and heritage programs.

But the fight for more restorations across all programs continues, and the local government is pushing back. On August 10, the Speaker of the House, Danielle Barkhouse, issued a three-to-12-month ban against 36 people from the Nova Scotia Legislature, effective September 1, 2026.

To date, coverage of the proposed cuts have largely focused on the effects they would have on the arts across Nova Scotia as a whole, but some regions, individuals, and organizations could face disproportionate consequences.

A Rock And A Hard Place

Many grant programs are aimed at economic development, so for-profits are often more attractive to public funders because they promise a higher return on investment than non-profits. But as Forward Music Group (FMG) founder Kyle Cunjak points out, this is ironic. "In the arts, the ROI numbers are incredible. For every dollar invested in the province, there's a return of over $4.50 in the local economy. The arts employ more people than agriculture, oil, and gas and all these other huge extractive, destructive industries." Yet the proposed cuts would disproportionately affect the non-profit sector in which organizations often have few backup resources.

In Cunjak's ideal scenario, he would operate FMG as a non-profit or cooperative. But to establish eligibility with FACTOR so FMG can access operational funding on a federal level, he was forced to incorporate FMG as a for-profit. Therefore, Cunjak only occasionally applies for provincial funding, to support annual business travel subsidization, marketing, and artist touring. "I would love to have [more] operational funding because it would mean we could help subsidize our office space and probably have more capacity to hire people, but because we're for profit, we're not eligible provincially for any operational funding."

Cunjak has long considered changing FMG's corporate status and forgoing federal operational funding in lieu of provincial operational funding. But even if organizations can pivot by changing their corporate status to access more funding opportunities, whether they're a non-profit or commercial, it could take them years to establish a competitive track record of success based on media coverage, industry recognition such as awards, and revenue, streaming, download, and social media metrics.

"Especially now with these cuts, that's not going to happen," he laments. "I'm kind of glad we didn't do that a year or two ago because now, we'd be between a rock and a hard place where we'd have no funding provincially or federally."

Rural Hotbeds

Despite circumstances precluding arts workers from accessing certain types of funding, artists are increasingly moving to rural Nova Scotia, especially as the cost of living in Halifax has nearly doubled since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic: the city has ranked as one of Canada's least affordable cities according to the Urban Stress Index, which weighs cost of living against salary, and per the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' 2025 Living Wages Report, the figure sits at $29.40 an hour in Halifax compared to an average of $25.95 an hour throughout the rest of Nova Scotia. As a result of rural influxes, more performances are happening in smaller communities. "That was an exciting thing because as it becomes more expensive and tough to travel, it's nice to have more opportunities for performance at home in our province," Cunjak says.

"I think you can do it anywhere, in Pictou County, too," Antigonish-born musician Mary-Beth Carty says of the growing abundance of shows in rural Nova Scotia. "I don't think there's any reason for people to move to Halifax. There's too much competition there, if anything." Even compared to Sydney, her former place of residence and Nova Scotia's second-most populous city at approximately 31,000 people, "The bars in Halifax are less likely to give you a guarantee."

Hotbeds Bear The Brunt

If rural Nova Scotia is a hotbed of musical activity, it also stands to take the hardest hit if provincial music funding cuts go through.

Cunjak cites geographical isolation and low population as challenges for presenting music in Nova Scotia, but he also acknowledges that these conditions give rise to crucial grassroots networks. "The development of more rural networks is exciting because it enables more performance opportunities. Now there's the threat of that being halted because it's not a money-maker. [...] Funding cuts are going to stunt that exciting growth. If you're growing up in Antigonish, there might not be as many shows coming there or as many kids getting inspired to be living a life where they're making art and being fulfilled that way."

Cunjak predicts that guarantees will disappear, and stakeholders will take a more cautious approach to programming. "Now, they won't be bringing in as much interesting stuff, which is to me the real loss here. We're just going to see more milquetoast stuff happening in the smaller communities because they'll be more focused on having to break even. [Stakeholders] won't be able to take risks and bring exciting projects and develop emerging artists." This is especially difficult because emerging artists often need to perform in any given smaller community multiple times to establish an audience.

So what happens to music workers if provincial music funding gets cut? It's entirely possible that more rural areas like Wolfville, Yarmouth, Antigonish, Cape Breton, New Glasgow, and even smaller communities will suffer a creative drain as music workers flock to Halifax, in turn driving up the competition for already-competitive grant programs (and for less funding) or head west.

Carty foresees a worse outcome than increased competition in urban centres and the loss of deep-rooted grass-roots networks. "I'm like, 'They're cutting the arts? Oh, well, I better go with something more reliable and get a job.'" She says this even as a musician with 20 years of professional experience. "Young people are going to want to take a different career path. 'There are all these cuts here, so I'm not going go to NSCAD [Nova Scotia College of Art and Design] or a music program at one of the universities.'"

Passion Above All

Though Carty can see individuals leaving the music industry or deciding against pursuing a career in it in the first place due the potential funding cuts, she tries to stay positive.

"I'm still in the mindset of, 'We're going to make this work.' A lot of times, artists do things with no grant support, and we're just going on unphased and hoping people buy the tickets. Some of my upcoming shows are not organized by festivals. It's just me and a guy in a church being like, 'Hey, let's put on a show.' Half the time, that's what's happening, and there's no grant in sight, and artists are really relying on the public to support them."

Cunjak agrees with Carty. "Nova Scotia has a lot of really interesting and exciting people in rural communities who are great artists, have a great network, could bring exciting artists to their community, and put on shows. They're willing and ready to do the work, and they have been doing the work."

But this willingness is a double-edged sword. "The real problem is, you take away the funding, and people are still probably going to do it because they love it," Cunjak says. "A lot of these people will probably go from overworked and underpaid to even more underpaid. When the folks making the [provincial] budgets realize that we'll still do everything without compensation, they realize, 'We can just take this away, and they'll still do these things.'"

Dylan Jewers, founder of Dartmouth-based label and concert promoter Big Turnip, echoes Carty's and Cunjak's stance. "Truthfully, little of [musical activity] has anything to do with funding. It has to do with drive and ambition and a love of art and culture. If anything, more artists are leaving the HRM [Halifax Regional Municipality] and moving to smaller communities. Nothing is that far away. Sure, if you are in Sydney and need to drive to Yarmouth, that's rough, but I mean, on the way, there are so many great places to hit. And if you ever wanna tour in Canada, you need to get used to being in a car for a long long time."

Jewers agrees that artists will persist with or without funding, and that's why he's less panicked than Cunjak and Carty about the potential cuts. "I see people burning out all the time. This is hard work, and sometimes, it is thankless. Folks who need funding to continue may be in trouble. Folks who don't need funding will continue to grind it out until they can't anymore."

Division As Regional Myth-Making

On a fundamental level, Jewers doesn’t see a rural-urban divide in Nova Scotia. "Maybe I'm missing something, but I have never really seen it as a divide. I just see it as some folks live in the Halifax Regional Municipality, and others live everywhere else. The rural or smaller communities are some of the best to play. They are some of the best venues. They have some of the best audiences and best people."

Jewers also dismisses the notions that a rural funding pull out will produce a creative drain, and competition will increase for already-competitive funding in Halifax. "I don't think it's nearly that dire. This is still so new," he says, withholding his diagnosis. "It's too hard to say just yet. I can't see a whole lot of good coming from the funding cuts, but we won't know how bad it is gonna be just yet."

I think what happened was terrible, and I think the Houston government are a bunch of dorks and that they will carry the stink of this decision for a long, long time, but we won't be able to fully understand the ramifications of it for a little while yet," he continues. "[Nova Scotia] is small. We have one real city. If you wanna play around the province, you need to play in the smaller communities. I have done my best to continually work in all areas of the province.

"I strongly believe there are some of the greatest venues in the region in rural and smaller communities. And less competition. Places like Steeple Green in Musquodoboit Harbour or Big Spruce Brewing in Nyanza, Cape Breton - these places are so valuable. And if you are a touring or gigging musician anywhere in Canada, the idea of driving a few hours to the next gig cannot scare you. You won't make it six months. This country only has so many cities. Play in the smaller communities as much as possible. I don't see any excuse for not playing as many areas in Nova Scotia as you can. There are places to play, community organizers, festivals, legions, cafes, barns, fields, breweries, and halls everywhere. Find out where the gigs are. Talk to people. Drive around. Go to shows."