Opposition MPs in Ottawa have charged the Harper government with favoritism in how it chopped around $45 million from various federal arts programs.

‘There is real concern the government is picking and choosing which artists it is supporting and which artists it is not supporting.

I suggest, in a democracy, that is a dangerous thing,’ NDP MP Peggy Nash (Parkdale-High Park) told a Tuesday House of Commons Heritage committee meeting called in the wake of the funding cuts.

The Conference Board of Canada earlier in the day released a report that argues the Canadian cultural sector is worth $84.6 billion annually to the economy.

Against that background, Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger told the Heritage committee that the government was acting without consultation or transparency to make cuts to arts funding.

‘We live in a parliamentary democracy, and this government seems to want to avoid Parliament like the plague. Is there an abuse here of executive authority? If the government can cancel any program it chooses, where does it stop?’ Bélanger challenged.

But Conservative MPs on the committee said the budget chops followed an extensive ‘strategic review’ to restore effectiveness to arts funding, and end waste. Programs that it announced it would stop supporting include A-V Preservation Trust, the Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund, the National Training Schools Program, Trade Routes and PromArt.

Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro defended the government’s right to ‘make adjustments,’ and added that the Harper regime has in fact increased overall arts funding compared to levels when the opposition Liberals were in power.