Eaton Hamilton

Happy Sunday! It’s a chilly, rainy day where I am, but just outside my window, the first of the clematis armandii are beginning to open. If it were a dry dry, there might be enough of them open at dusk to send out their redolence, which always makes me swoon.

The young lilacs are still sulking but the one I cherish, which has darker blooms, has come into its own finally! I am going to dig up a sucker and replant that hoping for a new plant but in a pot.

Today I am thinking about grants in Canada. The subsistence level is stuck at only $2000/month. One is supposed to devote oneself to the grant, but no one can support themselves on $24,000/year any longer in this country. That’s a studio apt or, if really lucky, a 1-bedroom apartment in Vancouver (and certainly where I live), and that doesn’t even begin to factor in hydro, gas, phone/s, cable, taxes, food, gas or car repairs/bus passes. So if all a recipient can do is worry how they’re going to manage, they’re not able to concentrate on the matters at hand–creating their art.

This means that anyone trying to live on the amount of a grant as their only income is SOL. It’s not possible. Which then implies that most grants are going to wealthier people who aren’t depending on them to get through their month. What I mean is these folks must have other money like investments or a partner’s income to rely on, which means by not increasing these subsistence amounts Canada is guaranteeing a problem with equal access for all.

I’m saying it here first: Grant subsistence amounts need to double, but fast.