Yellowknife (Oct 09/06) - Northern museums will see widespread program cuts as a result of the elimination of the Museum Assistance Program (MAP).

Providing special funding to small museums in the North and around Canada, the $4.6 million program was part of more than $1 billion removed from the budget by the Conservative Party in recent weeks.

"In the long run, it severely challenges what we can do," said Jeri Miltenberger, chair of the Northern Life Museum in Fort Simpson.

She said the cuts will jeopardize two major projects the museum had underway: plans to expand their outdoor museum and for an Aboriginal Cultural Centre.

"(The centre was) something that everyone was quite eager to go forward with," she said. "I hope it doesn't get scrapped."

The story is similar on the other side of the Nunavut/NWT border, with the Kitikmeot Heritage Foundation in Cambridge Bay.

"I'm not sure how we're going to be able to cope," said Kim Crockatt, one of the co-founders of the foundation.

The cuts have also created an uproar among Northern tourism, literacy and anti-smoking groups, who were all affected.

With larger facilities, such as the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit museum in Iqaluit, the impact is less pronounced.

"We don't get any funding from museum assistance for our basic operating costs," said curator Brian Lunger.

He said the funding was used primarily for special projects, such as an oral history exhibit the museum put together in 2001.

"It's just another piece in the puzzle of funding that all museums use."

The situation is similar at the Prince of Wales Heritage Centre in Yellowknife, as cuts may affect future programs, but not core funding.

"It's really essential to our exhibit development," said director Charles Arnold. As an example, he cited a recent exhibit of Cree painter Allen Sapp, which was developed with MAP funding in North Battleford, Sask., and then travelled to Yellowknife.

"It affects us directly and indirectly because we often benefit from exhibits other museums put together through that funding."

He said the response from museum-goers has been supportive, reflecting some of the furor that has sprung up around the country.

"There's a great deal of concern out there," he said.

"It's really a message that museums are considered irrelevant, wasteful and inefficient," said Canadian Museum Association executive director John McAvity. "That's regrettable. It contradicted what we were being told by this govt," he added. "That museums were a priority, and they were bringing new investment into museums across Canada."

"We certainly did not see it coming."