CCA Bulletin 01/07

FROM THE DESK OF ALAIN PINEAU
National Director
Canadian Conference of the Arts

Ottawa, January 10, 2007

Taking Stock of the Renewed CCA

As I start my second year at the helm of the Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA), I would like to take a moment to review with you what we have accomplished over the past year… and what a very busy and challenging year 2006 turned out to be!

The main objective of the CCA’s Board and Secretariat over 2006 was to refocus on the core mission of the organization, as decided by the Board at its meetings in September 2005. This refocussing, encapsulated in the recently reformulated Mission Statement of the CCA, can be found in the considerable amount of information, analysis, and advocacy work delivered by the CCA over the whole calendar year.

From the acclaimed information produced during the last federal election, to the two successful conferences held in Ottawa in March 2006, to the numerous activities in many federal government forums for funding artists and the arts, as well as several interventions in front of the CRTC on the production and distribution of Canadian culture, CCA’s presence and messages have been noted and often well-received.

Yet much more work remains to be done, particularly with regards to the adequate funding of the arts via an increased budget of the Canada Council for the Arts.  This is an issue for which the CCA has been active both on its own, and through its participation in the Canadian Arts Coalition; the ongoing campaign will require sustained action to sensitize the Government to the real needs of the sector.

Complete, timely, and reliable information on cultural policy issues is the CCA’s main output and we continue to pay special attention to our external communications.  The 54 bulletins produced in 2006 have covered a large number of priority policy issues for the arts and culture sector, and I am personally proud to say that they have generated a flurry of unsolicited positive comments from various quarters.

To support the enriched substance of our communications, the CCA has reformatted its bulletins to make them more readily accessible.  With the appropriate electronic links imbedded in our bulletins, combined with our website (www.ccarts.ca) and electronic magazine, CCA’s @gora, we are continuing to build a publicly accessible, 21st century research tool on cultural policy issues in Canada.

To accomplish this as efficiently as possible, the CCA’s Secretariat has been undergoing a complete review of its workflows, structure, and job descriptions.  Similar considerations of efficiency have led us to work closely with other elements of civil society, for example on the federal budget and on the Federal Accountability Act (FAA).

Based on the feedback we are getting – and in some cases, the generous donations that come with the encouraging words! – it would appear that the continued relevance of the CCA is being reasserted, even after 60 years of changes in the Canadian cultural environment.  As the unique contribution of the CCA to an open cultural policy debate is increasingly recognized, we must now turn our attention to providing the organization with the tools required to deliver what is rightfully expected of it.

Like many others in the arts and culture sector, the CCA is financially challenged.  For the past 30 years, the organization has relied to various extent on the financing it receives from the federal government, while often still remaining underfunded to deliver its mandate adequately. Membership fees have not been revisited for almost 15 years while the cost of the services we provide have gone up, despite our continuing efforts at achieving greater efficiencies. This year, the funding received through the Department of Heritage has been cut by 20% because of the advocacy aspects of our work – an issue on which we have initiated a dialogue with the Minister.

The CCA Board and Secretariat are currently working on facing these financial challenges for the years to come.  Individual and organizational membership fees are going to be adjusted in the new fiscal year starting in April, and new resources and partnerships will be sought.  Donations, which have grown significantly this fiscal year and for which we are most thankful, will be pursued vigourously. The results of this work, alongside the results of an ongoing Board evaluation of the CCA’s current governance model, will be communicated to members and supporters in the coming weeks and months.

These various internal challenges will provide the backdrop for our preoccupations in 2007 in what looks to be a very important political period for the Canadian cultural sector.  Fundamental issues are currently on the table in a number of policy files which, jointly and severally, have important consequences for the sector. Copyright legislation, foreign ownership, the role of the federal government in culture and the tools it uses to fulfill this role, the role of regulation to protect and promote Canadian culture at home and abroad, the review of the mandates of the CRTC and of the CBC, the long-overdue Museum Policy, the increased and stable funding of the Canada Council and of the program “Tomorrow Starts Today”, the place of arts and culture in Canadian diplomacy, all of these issues - and no doubt more! - will be on our agenda for the coming months.  To make things more complex, the timing of these debates depends very much on a political situation that may or may not get more stable after a federal election expected most likely within the next several months.

Based on the results of the past year, I can say that the CCA Board and Secretariat face these numerous challenges with confidence.  We all believe passionately in the unique mission of the CCA and we remain deeply committed to fulfilling that mandate.  We are confident that if we work hard, we will get the support our mission deserves for, alongside health, security and prosperity, what is more important to a nation than its cultural identity?

My very best wishes to all for 2007!  And let us work closely together for the greater good of Canadian artists and culture.