Two weeks after the chairwoman of the B.C. Arts Council resigned, the province announced it’s giving the organization $7 million for its strategic plan.

However, the money from the government’s new 2010 Sports and Arts Legacy Fund was already allocated in this year’s budget and one arts organization is questioning its long-term value.

Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts Kevin Krueger said Wednesday the money will boost the council’s budget to $16 million.

The Legacy Fund budgets $10 million a year for this year and the next two and comes out of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Krueger said Jane Danzo resigned out of pressure to lobby for more arts funding — something she couldn’t do in her position with the council. He said stories that she quit to protest arts funding cuts are just spin.

Kathy Humphreys, manager of the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra, said there are a hundreds of B.C. arts groups trying to make up for a previous 45-per-cent reduction to their funding.

And this money comes with criteria about the kinds of programs that will qualify.

It’s only groups that meet the criteria that will get any part of the $7 million, and with so many looking for funding sources, the money will dry up fast, she said.

“Whether that would even bring us back up to the funding level of last year, we don’t know,” Humphreys said.

“We’ve already been cut. Now we’re seeing we have access to some additional money, if we meet the criteria.”

So while it’s good news some money is coming, Humphreys wasn’t sure what the benefit will be in the end. And with a Sept. 30 application deadline, there isn’t much time for groups to put together their requests.

“At first, I thought wow, maybe the lobbying and protesting has paid off. Then I went further into it and maybe not. I wish it had been better news.”

Krueger said grants vary from year to year, depending on what the government can afford. He said reductions to grants shouldn’t be called cuts, because they aren’t regular budget amounts.

“There’s never enough money to go around, like a lot of programs,” he said.

B.C. arts groups reached a funding peak in 2008 and have seen grants reduced since then because of the recession, Krueger said.

“It’s going to get better again, but there has been a tremendous amount of angst in the arts community,” he said.

“But it is new money with this budget, and until now, details of how it would be allocated hadn’t been announced.”

He believed groups like the KSO will be able get some of the Legacy Fund money.

myoung@kamloopsnews.ca