SASKATOON, SK: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on the government of Saskatchewan to cut wasteful spending at SK Arts.

“Hard-working taxpayers should not be subsidizing weird passion projects by artists that almost nobody watches,” said Gage Haubrich, CTF Prairie Director. “Saskatchewan’s debt has more than doubled in the last decade and the province can’t afford to keep wasting money like this.”

Every year SK Arts receives close to $7 million in funding from provincial taxpayers.

Projects funded through SK Arts grant programs over the last few years include:

• $1,000 for an artist to record and make a music video for a song titled “Baby Back Bitch.” The song currently has less than 200 views on YouTube.
   
• $4,747 to an artist to complete postproduction on a short film titled “Fuck.” The film is nine minutes and 30 seconds long.
   
• $6,000 to an artist to “take a temporary leave from work and turn my primary focus towards songwriting and recording.”
   
• $5,000 to another artist to cover “rent and grocery costs” while taking a five-month leave from work to write songs.

“Most Saskatchewanians work on their hobbies and other projects after work or on the weekend,” Haubrich said “They don’t expect taxpayers to pay their rent and grocery costs while they learn how to play the guitar.”

Other projects include:

• $757 to support the recipient to write another grant application to ask for more money. The description states that “this proposal is for support to develop a proposal for a Saskatchewan Arts Board Artists in Communities Project grant.”
   
• $12,500 to an author who has already published at least three books to write a “young adult novel about a teen who gets caught in a time loop deep in the back-country of the Canadian Rockies.”
• $5,007 to the band Cupid’s Heart to create five new original songs during a “creative” retreat at Anglin Lake.
   
• $1,000 for a recipient to purchase travel, accommodation and fees to attend a “Drag/Clown workshop in Ontario.”
   
• $10,000 to an artist to “to complete and release a five-part audio piece exploring our relationship with water in Southwestern Saskatchewan.”

“Handing out thousands of dollars to already established authors or to pay for bands to go on camping trips is an obvious waste of money,” Haubrich said. “Clearly, the government takes taxpayers for clowns for funding these ludicrous examples of waste.”

All grants given out through SK Arts can be found here.