Absolutely. Many, many Alberta artists, career artists, have felt diminished by their inability to secure funding. Stewart Lemoine, a famous and highly awarded Canadian playwright who has 72 published plays has, in his 27 years, received two project grants 15 years ago, and he gave up after five more years of trying. He said it was too insulting to apply for funding.
He has self-selected, as have many organizations. It is a big administrative task, especially for small organizations, to apply for funding and when you're told year after year to keep applying because you're almost there, it feels disingenuous.