Independent publishers in Nova Scotia are hopeful that widespread support of local arts and culture will lead the provincial government to reconsider the wholesale cuts to arts support included in its 2026 budget. 

The budget bill, tabled in the legislature last week, includes the elimination of the $700,000 Nova Scotia Publishers Assistance Fund, a 20 per cent reduction to the operating budget of the Atlantic Publishers Marketing Association, a 30 per cent reduction to provincial arts grants, and the elimination of the writers in schools program. The budget also includes a 20 per cent reduction to the operational support of the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia. The cuts are to take effect immediately.

Without the funding from the Publishers Assistance Fund, Terrilee Bulger of Nimbus Publishing and James Lorimer of Formac Publishing say they won’t be able to publish the same breadth of Nova Scotia books, and will have to focus instead on publishing books that have strong marketability. 

“This funding from the province has always allowed us to be able to do books that are very particularly related to Nova Scotia,” says Bulger, who notes that the market outside of Nova Scotia for books about specific local history or cultural groups, including the Acadians and the Mi’Kmaw is limited. “Part of our mandate is to preserve these stories; however, the market is small, and if we can’t sell it elsewhere and the province isn’t supporting it, then those stories just aren’t going to get the same kind of attention.”

The cuts mean Formac already has had to revise its publishing list from about 15 titles a year to eight or nine, and books that require intensive editorial time will no longer be viable. Lorimer cites a recent title, Seven Days in Halifax by Robert Ashe, as an example of the kind of book that Formac won’t be able to take a chance on without provincial funding. Formac worked with Ashe on the book for about five years, Lorimer says. 

“It affects our acquisition and our commissioning,” Lorimer says of the cuts. “It means that there are some projects we have on our wish list – that we’re working with authors now – where today I would say it’s not a strong enough project to be able to continue with.”

Publishers were given no advance indication that this program would be eliminated, and had been lobbying leaders in the provincial government over the last year about developing more ways to support the province’s independent publishing industry, seemingly with some success, including the development last year of the Nova Scotia Loyal book industry pilot program. Under that program, which ran from Oct. 24 to Feb. 28, 4,000 $10 vouchers were distributed to 11 independent bookstores in the province, redeemable on certain books written by Nova Scotia authors and published by Nova Scotia-based presses. 

The cuts across all sectors of arts, heritage, and culture are being widely criticized by Nova Scotians, with authors such as Carol Bruneau going on television to speak about the impact of the budget and Rachel Reid and Stephen Kimber sharing on social media the letters they’ve sent denouncing the cuts to the premier and their local MLAs.

National publishing organizations have also condemned the cuts, including the Association of Canadian Publishers, the Literary Press Group of Canada, and the Writers Union of Canada, which said in a statement last week that the arts funding cuts threaten cultural sovereignty.

Independent bookstores have taken to posting signs alerting customers to the cuts and encouraging them to write to the premier and their MLAs.

A rally in support of arts, heritage, and culture is planned for Wednesday, March 3 at noon at the provincial legislature in Halifax.

The budget has not yet passed in the legislature, and Bulger says publishers will be giving a presentation about their perspective on the budget cuts to a committee at a date yet to be determined. 

“We have seen (the provincial government) pivot before,” Bulger says. “Hopefully this will be one of those times that they’ll see the light and recognize that this isn’t what Nova Scotians want and they will pivot again.”