Budget 2025 — Museums Left Behind While Government Celebrates Token Tourism Measures

Press Release

November 6, 2025

The Canadian Museums Association has issued a letter to the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue, expressing grave concerns regarding the 2026 Federal Budget.

“The federal budget has abandoned Canada’s museums. Budget 2025 delivers virtually nothing no cohesive vision for Canada’s 2,700 museums – institutions present in every riding that preserve heritage, educate communities, drive tourism, and employ over 32,000 Canadians.”

The letter outlines the numerous ways the government has failed to acknowledge the importance of investing in museums, and our national heritage infrastructure with particular concern for the following:

• No resources for Indigenous-led cultural heritage rights or repatriation. This ongoing inaction undermines Canada’s obligations under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.
• Zero increase to the Museums Assistance Program (frozen at $6.7M since 2013).
• No permanent heritage youth employment funding, only a token 2% increase to the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (YESS) that fails to keep pace with rising employment costs and provides no expansion of heritage youth positions.
• Up to 15% cuts to the Department of Canadian Heritage.
• Canada Cultural Spaces Fund, which served as an important infrastructure investment, has been gutted to equipment-only purchases.

The CMA acknowledges that the continuation of the Canada Strong Pass program does seem like a significant investment, however its impact is severely limited. The Canada Strong Pass funnels visitors to just a fraction of nationally and provincially managed sites while community museums struggle with frozen funding and crumbling infrastructure.

Canada’s museums, institutions that 94 percent of Canadians believe deserve support, are not just seeking charity. They are asking for a strategic investment in one of the most efficient engines of economic growth, local employment, and community well-being.

Beyond their economic impact, museums serve as anchors for belonging, safeguarding and activating the stories of our nation through diverse voices, lived experiences, and cultural expression of individuals and communities from coast to coast. They are dynamic places of learning where education unfolds through all stories and histories, from time immemorial to the present, weaving together a national narrative rooted in truth. By supporting museums, Canada invests in spaces where truth, reconciliation, creativity, and community come together to shape an inclusive national identity for generations to come.

We invite the government to reconsider these decisions, that are more spectacle over substance and consider how they can invest in all Canadian museums, and therefore all Canadian communities. The CMA will be taking the time to further consult with the CMA Indigenous Council and Indigenous Heritage Task Force to support a focused statement outlining their concerns in the coming days.

-30-

Media inquiries:

Rebecca MacKenzie, Director of Communications
communications@museums.ca | (613) 567-0099 ext. 243

ILR4