Events such as the Ottawa Tulip Festival and Ottawa Bluesfest, prizes such as the Ottawa Book Awards and groups such as choirs and heritage societies would lose every penny of their annual funding under cuts proposed to balance the City of Ottawa's 2009 budget.

City staff recommended $4.1 million in cuts to the city's arts and culture programs when they released the 2009 draft budget last week.

Details of the cuts are outlined in documents obtained by many of the 286 affected groups and individuals, many of whom were to meet Monday to discuss what to do about the proposals.

Those that would lose 100 per cent of their funding include:

• The Canadian Tulip Festival, Ottawa Bluesfest and the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, which get operating funds annually.
• Several choirs and some dance, theatre and other groups that get operating funds from the city annually.
• Community projects such as Centretown movies, Propeller Dance, House of PainT and Ladyfest.
• The Ottawa Book Awards and the Karsh Award program for outstanding artists.
• Several heritage projects and historical societies.
• Diversity programs such as the Latin American Festival and the Ottawa Chinese Arts Troupe.
• "Capacity building" programs that help groups such as the Great Canadian Theatre Company expand and mature.

Some larger, more established organizations such as Opera Lyra and the Independent Filmmakers Co-operative of Ottawa (IFCO) would lose 42 per cent of their funding.

Groups such as the Ottawa Arts Court Foundation and the Ottawa Art Gallery and museums such as the Bytown Museum, which have multi-year agreements to provide services to the city, would see cuts of 10 to 24 per cent, while endowment funds would remain untouched.

Cuts will kill jobs, hurt economy: artists

Independent filmmaker Penny McCann said the festivals bring tourists to Ottawa, and while many of the large cuts to their budgets will save $100,000 each, they will remove far more than that from the local economy at a time at a crucial time.

David Flemming, president of the group Heritage Ottawa, which advocates to protect old buildings, said many people will lose their jobs — nine due to the heritage cuts alone.

He said his organization, which relies on volunteers, will survive, although it would lose its office under the cuts.

Patrice James, executive director of IFCO, said she's not sure how her organization will weather its budget cut.

"I don't know if we can recover from that in certain ways, so it could compromise the integrity of programming."

Public consultations on the draft budget will be held until Nov. 27. Council will also hear from public delegations on Dec. 1-2 and, if necessary, Dec. 3 before approving the final budget by Dec. 5.