Canada's federal government has added CAD$25 million to the rebuilding of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, taking total public and private pledges for the project to CAD$100 million. The new money, announced during Art Toronto last week, comes through the Green and Inclusive Community Buildings programme and doubles Ottawa's earlier commitment of CAD$25 million, made in March 2025. The Government of Ontario has contributed a further CAD$50 million, with private donors adding the rest.

The museum, in Kleinburg outside Toronto, holds one of the world's most significant collections of Canadian and Indigenous art and is the only publicly funded gallery in the country devoted exclusively to that field. Its permanent collection numbers more than 7,500 works, including paintings by the Group of Seven and Tom Thomson and works on paper by Inuit artists from Kinngait, formerly Cape Dorset. It also holds the Kinngait Archive, more than 89,000 artworks kept in trust for the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative.

Built in the 1950s and last substantially upgraded in the 1980s, the building will be renovated and extended to create 30 percent more room for permanent displays and temporary exhibitions, alongside improved conservation, education and back-of-house facilities. The institution's director, Sarah Milroy, described the project as an investment in Canada's future and in the art that shapes how the country sees itself.

The announcement landed during an Art Toronto fair that leaned into a Canada-first stance: of 105 participating galleries, only three came from the United States, as the sector contends with a 50 percent American tariff on Canadian original artwork. New initiatives at the fair included an advisory desk for first-time buyers and an evening aimed at younger collectors.