The city of Montreal’s latest budget increase for the Conseil des arts de Montréal (CAM) will only cover minimal changes in the cost of living, despite a significant increase in artists requesting grants and subsidies.
CAM will be receiving a $400,000 funding increase as part of the Montreal agglomeration’s 2024 budget, bringing funding for the organization up to $21.9M. This is a 1.8 per cent increase from 2023. The Consumer Price Index, meanwhile, increased 3.8 per cent over a 12-month period as of September 2023, according to Statistics Canada.
These funds make up 94 per cent of the CAM’s annual budget, with the remaining six per cent coming from donations, according to general director Nathalie Maillé. She says this year’s increase will only help them offset some of the impacts of inflation and cost of living increases.
Nathalie Maillé (Photo by Normand Huberdeau)
“The city of Montreal is in a difficult situation,” Maillé says. “(For) 2024, we wish that it could be higher. We need this for the artists.”
CAM has received an average budget increase of around two per cent each year since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over that same period, Maillé says CAM has received 150 per cent more requests for grants and subsidies.
Maillé says their organization could do a lot more with a five to six per cent budget increase. They would begin by increasing their operating grants, since the roughly 400 organizations they help fund have operated on the same budgets for the last seven years. They would also look at opening more residency opportunities.
Maillé is optimistic that the Montreal agglomeration will increase their funding to $24M by 2025, the minimum amount needed for the organization’s success according to CAM’s 2025 strategic plan. She says they don’t foresee having to make any cuts within the organization.
“We will continue to work very hard to ensure that our 2025 budget will enable us to further support the artists whose needs are so great,” she says.
Conseil des arts de Montréal
www.artsmontreal.org
