The Literary Press Group has announced that the Department of Canadian Heritage has reversed its decision to revoke federal funding to the group, and that support for the Canada Book Fund has been restored.

The Literary Press Group has announced that the Department of Canadian Heritage has reversed its decision to revoke federal funding to the group, and that support for the Canada Book Fund has been restored.

Executive Director of LPG Jack Illingworth said in a statement that though the group had yet to receive formal confirmation, they had been told that Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore had decided to continue funding the group, which serves 47 Canadian-owned and controlled literary book publishers.

Though the government funding is not the group’s only source of revenue, it is its main one, and would have meant all field sales representatives would have been laid off as of August 31, 2012 and most head-office staff would have been released on November 30, 2012.

While the decision to revoke funding was certainly not good news, it was made worse by the timing. Being two months into its fiscal year, LPG has contractual agreements that it needs to fulfill. 

See also: Publisher's group loses funding