Open Letter: Nova Scotia Budget 2026 Cuts to Community Programs: The True Cost of “Thoughtful Financial Decisions”

To: Premier Tim Houston, Minister of Finance John Lohr, and Members of the Legislative Assembly

From: Trish McCourt, RSW Former Executive Director, Social Worker, Non-Profit Consultant, Arts Volunteer

Date: March 5, 2026

I have wrestled with whether to speak publicly about the 2026-27 provincial budget tabled on February 24th. Having just left my role as Executive Director of a provincial association to embark on independent consulting work supporting non-profit and community development, I wondered if it was wise to risk future relationships by speaking out so soon.

But after reviewing the $130.4 million in cuts to community grants – eliminating 127 funding programs entirely and reducing 160 others -I cannot stay silent. When I read the budget’s claim that this is “about making thoughtful financial decisions to establish a strong foundation for the future,” I was struck by the lack of understanding that government continues to demonstrate about the realities of community and community supports.

The Smoke and Mirrors of “Fiscal Responsibility”

The budget presents a narrative of difficult but necessary choices. On paper, it might look like we’re being fiscally responsible – cutting what appears to be discretionary spending while investing $1.2 billion in healthcare infrastructure and $33.8 million in cybersecurity. But I assure you, this is smoke and mirrors.

Let me be clear about what these cuts actually represent:

The $130.4 million in eliminated and reduced community grants represents approximately 2% of total provincial spending. Yet for the 287 programs affected, these cuts represent anywhere from 20% to 100% of their operating capacity. For Arts Nova Scotia, a 30% funding reduction. For the Creative Economy Publishers Assistance Program, complete elimination after supporting Nova Scotia’s literary community. For Visual Arts Nova Scotia’s PAINTS program, elimination after 32 years of nurturing emerging artists. For Hope Blooms – a youth program that became internationally recognized for empowering young people in North End Halifax – a $20,000 cut that threatens its sustainability.

This is not thoughtful financial decision-making. This is choosing to dismantle community infrastructure that took decades to build, infrastructure that will cost exponentially more to rebuild – if it can be rebuilt at all.

What We’re Really Cutting: The Social Determinants of Health

As a social worker, I understand something that seems to have been lost in this budget process: arts programs, community services, and cultural initiatives are not luxuries. They are preventative health infrastructure.

When you cut funding to community programs that provide connection and belonging, you are not saving money. You are deferring costs – and multiplying them. The senior who loses access to a community program that provided social connection will show up in our healthcare system with depression, isolation-related decline, and preventable emergency room visits. The youth who loses access to arts programming that gave them purpose and community will cost us more in mental health interventions, justice system involvement, or addictions treatment.

I’ve seen this. I’ve worked with these young people. I’ve watched what happens when the one program that was working for them disappears. The cost isn’t theoretical – it’s a kid in crisis, a family in chaos, a system scrambling to respond to what could have been prevented.

The Mi’kmaw, African Nova Scotian, and Gaelic communities losing cultural programming will see the intergenerational trauma and disconnection that we know – from decades of research and lived experience – leads to poorer health outcomes and higher system costs.

I’d challenge the Premier and Finance Minister to spend just a few days sitting in the offices of the non-profit organizations absorbing these cuts. It wouldn’t take an hour to see how these programs function as the connective tissue of healthy communities.

The False Economy of Cutting Community Infrastructure

During my time leading a provincial association and a regional women’s resource centre, I observed and experienced firsthand how non-profit organizations operate. These are not bloated bureaucracies with room to absorb cuts. These are lean operations, often held together by the dedication of underpaid staff and volunteers who believe deeply in their mission. Many of these workers are themselves from the communities they serve – people who took lower-paying jobs because they believed in the work, who will now lose their livelihoods while being told it’s about “fiscal responsibility.”

When you eliminate $17.5 million in Department of Municipal Affairs grants – 100% of that funding – you are not trimming fat. When you cut $5 million from museums, literally closing 12 of 28, $700,000 from publishing support, $360,000 from NSCAD operations, and $386,000 from community engagement grants, you are not finding efficiencies. You are dismantling the very organizations that deliver essential services to Nova Scotians.

Here’s what the budget doesn’t tell you:

Non-profit organizations leverage every dollar of government funding multiple times over through volunteer hours, donated services, fundraising, and in-kind contributions. A $20,000 grant doesn’t represent $20,000 in community value – it represents $60,000, $80,000, sometimes $100,000 in actual program delivery when you account for the multiplier effect.

The budget also doesn’t tell you that these cuts will cost jobs. Real jobs held by Nova Scotians who work in the cultural sector, in community development, in social services. Jobs that contribute to our economy, that pay taxes, that support local businesses.

And the budget certainly doesn’t tell you about the volunteer burnout that will follow. The arts volunteers like myself – who give countless hours to theatre, music, publishing, museums – are already stretched thin. When government funding disappears, we’re expected to fill the gap. But there is a limit to what volunteers can sustain, especially when we’re also trying to make a living in an increasingly expensive province.

The Disproportionate Impact on Those Already Marginalized

Perhaps most troubling is who bears the weight of these cuts. Not the comfortable. Not the connected. The people who will feel this most acutely are those who were already struggling – the Nova Scotians for whom these programs weren’t nice-to-haves, but lifelines.

These cuts land on:

• The elder in rural Cape Breton whose weekly seniors’ program was her only regular human contact – now facing a 7.5% reduction in programming at a time when social isolation among older adults is a recognized public health crisis

• The young person in North End Halifax who found purpose and belonging through Hope Blooms, now watching a $20,000 cut threaten the program that gave them hope when nothing else did

• The Mi’kmaw artist reconnecting with culture and identity through programming that this budget has deemed expendable – as if healing from generations of colonial harm is a line item to be trimmed

• The African Nova Scotian community organization doing the work of addressing systemic racism that government has failed to address – now told there’s no money for that work

• The Gaelic speaker in Antigonish trying to keep a language alive for the next generation, watching cultural programming disappear

• The single mother in Yarmouth whose kids attended free arts programming after school – programming that kept them safe, engaged, and connected while she worked a second job

• The emerging artist in Halifax who was barely making it work, relying on modest grants that have now vanished – wondering if there’s still a place for them in this province

These are not abstract budget lines. These are the faces I see when I read this budget. These are the people I’ve worked alongside for years. And these are the people who will pay the price for decisions made in offices far removed from their reality.

When we cut programs that serve the most vulnerable, we don’t save money. We shift costs – to emergency rooms, to shelters, to the justice system, to families already stretched beyond capacity. And we lose something that can’t be measured in dollars: the trust that government sees them, values them, and will not abandon them when times get tight.

The Contrast in Priorities

I want to be clear: I am not opposed to investing in healthcare infrastructure or cybersecurity. These are important priorities. But when we can find $1.2 billion for healthcare buildings while eliminating programs that keep people healthy and out of hospitals in the first place, we need to question our priorities.

When we can maintain spending in some areas while completely eliminating community grants that represent a fraction of our provincial budget, we need to ask: who decided that connection, belonging, culture, and community are expendable?

The budget projects a deficit of $1.19 billion (before contingency) and borrowing requirements of $3.39 billion. These are serious fiscal challenges. But the solution cannot be to dismantle the community infrastructure that makes Nova Scotia a place where people want to live, work, and raise families.

What I’m Asking

I am asking Premier Houston, Minister Lohr, and all MLAs to reconsider these cuts before they cause irreparable harm.

I am asking you to:

1. Conduct a real impact assessment of what these cuts will cost in downstream healthcare, justice, and social services spending. Bring in the non-profit leaders, the social workers, the community developers who understand these systems. Listen to what we know about the true costs of dismantling prevention and early intervention.

2. Recognize the multiplier effect of community grants and the disproportionate impact of these cuts on organizations and populations that can least afford to lose support.

3. Restore funding to programs serving Mi’kmaw, African Nova Scotian, Gaelic, senior, and youth communities – populations that have already faced systemic barriers and deserve investment, not abandonment.

4. Protect arts and culture funding as essential infrastructure, not discretionary spending. Our artists, our cultural workers, our museums and theatres and publishers are not luxuries – they are what make Nova Scotia home.

5. Engage in genuine consultation with the non-profit sector before making decisions that affect our ability to serve Nova Scotians. We are not adversaries. We are partners in building healthy, vibrant communities.

A Final Word

I left government social work because I could no longer work in a system that claimed to value the work while demonstrating through its actions that it did not. I left the Executive Director role of a non-profit to pursue work that allows me to support community development in new ways.

But I cannot leave behind my commitment to speaking truth about policies that harm the people and communities I care about.

The hardest part of this work has never been the work itself. It’s watching governments make decisions that take away the very resources communities need to thrive – and being told it’s for their own good.

This budget claims to be about “action, responsibility, and results.” I would argue that the responsible action is to invest in the community infrastructure that prevents crisis, that builds connection, that creates belonging. The result of these cuts will be communities that are less healthy, less vibrant, less resilient – and ultimately, more expensive to support.

We can do better. We must do better.

I invite any MLA, the Premier, or the Finance Minister to reach out if you would like to discuss these concerns further. I am happy to share what I know from years of working in social services, non-profit leadership, and community development. This is not about politics. This is about people.

Respectfully and urgently,

Trish McCourt, RSW Former Executive Director, Social Worker, Non-Profit Consultant, Arts Volunteer, Nova Scotia

This letter is being shared publicly and distributed to Members of the Legislative Assembly, Premier Tim Houston, and Minister of Finance John Lohr.

*written with AI assistance*