Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly says investing in arts will help grow the economy

Canada's heritage minister says stimulating economic growth starts by investing in innovation, and that means putting money into arts and culture.

"Investing in arts and culture is so key to our government," Mélanie Joly told CBC News: Nova Scotia at Six.

"Innovation is not created by just by saying so — you have to have the right ecosystem, you have to have the right people developing new ideas."

"The fauna and the flora of that ecosystem is arts and culture, is media," Joly said. "All that content development is the core of the creative economy that we know will be our future economy."   

Joly was in Halifax Tuesday to announce details of the Innovation150 program at the Discovery Centre.

Five science outreach programs will take part, creating travelling exhibits and special programming for Canada's 150th anniversary next year.

The government is spending nearly $6 million on the science initiatives.

Joly said she believes the CBC also has a role to play in the well-being of the country's economy. The heritage minister is responsible for overseeing the CRTC, the country's broadcast regulator, as well as CBC/Radio-Canada. 

"Investing in a public broadcaster is also for us a core of that vision of creating growth and having a sustainable growth and sustainable economy."

The Liberals have previously said CBC/Radio-Canada will receive $75 million in new funding in the upcoming budget, which is due to be released on March 22.