Iqaluit (Oct 09/06) - The elimination of the Museum Assistance Program (MAP), which provided special funding to small museums in the North and around Canada, is causing a lot of concern around Nunavut.

"I'm not sure how we're going to be able to cope," said Kim Crockatt, one of the co-founders of the Kitikmeot Heritage Foundation in Cambridge Bay. "We really rely on that source of funding."

The $4.6 million program was part of more than $1 billion removed from the budget by the Conservative Party in recent weeks.

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

Crockatt said without MAP money, they would not be able to obtain new display cases, nor maintain the ones they have, a problem that is accelerated by transportation costs to Cambridge Bay.

"It wouldn't take very long before it had a real effect on the facility," she said.

The story is similar on the other side of the Nunavut/NWT border, at the Northern Life Museum in Fort Simpson.

"In the long run, it severely challenges what we can do," said museum chair Jeri Miltenberger. She said the cuts will jeopardize two major projects the museum had under way: 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."

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 government. That museums were a priority, and they were bringing new investment into museums across Canada."

"We certainly did not see it coming."

He said the outcry has been Canada-wide, with national newspapers and television sources editorialising on the issue. This, he said, has prompted plans for a meeting between the organization and Canadian Minster of Heritage Bev Oda.

"I'm confident that we will get our museum policy," he said, adding, "I'm worried about cuts that do not appear to be going away."

"We're not frills, we're essential to communities and the nation on the whole."