Since becoming Premier, Doug Ford and his government have been making a variety of cuts throughout Ontario in an attempts to bring the province out of debt. However, some of these cuts have been seriously concerning a variety of Ontarians as he continues to cut health care, education, tourism and a variety of other sectors. Today, Ford has announced that he will also be cutting $5 million from the Indigenous Culture Fund. According to CityNews, Ford has announced that he will be cutting millions in the arts funding throughout the province in an attempts to trim the $11 billion deficit that the province is currently in. Ford announced that he will be cutting the "arts sector support" from $18.5 million to only $6.5 million. This will affect a variety of art and culture establishments and funds throughout the province, including $5 million that will be slashed from a fund that was originally used to support Indigenous culture. CityNews states that these funds were used for a variety of educational programs, including teaching indigenous women artistic and cultural practices such a porcupine quilling, an art form that was lost throughout many families due to the residential schools. View this post on Instagram Our government is making life more convenient and affordable for drivers. Today we marked the end of the outdated, ineffective Drive Clean program, and the first day of the federal government's carbon tax. We will continue to fight this unfair tax with every tool at our disposal. A post shared by Doug Ford (@fordnationdougford) on Apr 1, 2019 at 12:58pm PDT Dawn Setford, president of the Aboriginal Arts Collective of Canada told CityNews that she worries that these cuts will limit the teachings that she will be able to do to help and preserve indigenous culture. Once Ontarians hear about the cuts that were being made to the Indigenous Culture Fund, many took to Twitter to express their concerns over the issue, some even stating that this was hurtful to the indigenous people of Canada. This is extremely sad and once again, aiding the lawmakers in creating hurtful decisions.— Allie (@alessandracara) May 26, 2019 On my God not again. Stop causing harm to the Originals of Canada.@fordnation is horrible.— Michael 🌱🌱🌼 (@43Silencer) May 26, 2019 That’s really sad. There is a new cut everyday by the Ford government. He is constantly cutting services that are important to the people of Ontario. He is destroying Ontario.— Maria (@TheAmazingMaria) May 26, 2019 As an art major, I'm horrified. We need to continue to support indigenous arts and crafts...Hasn't this country put them through enough??? The entire creative community is so integral to ON, cutting funding to the arts is such a shame...— Jessann (@JessannReece) May 26, 2019 Of course, this isn't the only thing that Ford's government has cut in the past few months. Currently, Ford and the Toronto Mayor, John Tory are in a huge funding feud due to the amount of money that Ford is currently cutting from the Toronto budget. Tory states that about $177 million worth of cuts are being made that are directly targetting the city of Toronto in sectors such as public health, children's services, paramedics services, and Provincial gas funding. Ford has also made cuts to a variety of sectors throughout the province such as education and tourism.
