Federal government spends $1.5M on National Acadian Day

Ahead of National Acadian Day next month, the Government of Canada put more than $1 million on the table to help support celebrations over the next three years.

Federal ministers Ginette Petitpas Taylor and Dominic LeBlanc made the announcement Tuesday morning in Moncton.

“We’ve announced a $1.5 million investment over three years to help support Acadian festivals, festivities, to help promote the Acadian culture and tradition,” said Petitpas Taylor. 

The funding for this year, which equals $500,000, has already been allocated and will support more than 60 Acadian festivities. National Acadian Day will be held on Aug. 15.

Officials say the money can be used to support ongoing traditional celebrations or be put towards creating new events and festivities.

“I think Acadians are very humble and often times we don’t really talk about how proud we are of who we are and the resilience that we have, so it’s really important to make sure that we have consistent funding to make sure we can continue doing the important work and also the educational work that comes with it,” said Petitpas Taylor.

The federal government announced funding for National Acadian Day on July 2, 2024. (Source: Alana Pickrell/CTV News Atlantic)

Those interested in receiving funding can apply through the Department of Canadian Heritage and the amount given will depend on the application and proposed project.

“It’s deliberately flexible to allow a very small organization and a very small community to put together a community, or larger ones that perhaps attract media or broadcast attention like Acadie Rock or others,” said LeBlanc. “Often the groups that…organize activities around Aug. 15 are volunteer groups, they’re people who, year after year, plan to book different artists for musical celebrations.

“They organize Tintamarre, the parade, some of them are very small municipalities and for them, $5,000 for a community celebration is a lot of money, so this is the way for the government of Canada to support what volunteers are doing.”

The first National Acadian Convention was held in 1881 in Memramcook, N.B. The Canadian government passed the National Acadian Day Act in 2003.