CCA Bulletin 35/08 - Canada’s 39th Parliament and Art and Culture: What Has Been Done, What Died on the Order Paper…
Ottawa, Thursday, September 11, 2008
The legislative balance sheet
When the Governor General of Canada dissolved the 39th Parliament at the request of the Prime Minister, it brought to close the longest minority government in Canadian history. In doing so, the Order Paper (the legislative agenda of the government) was cancelled.
Thirty-five pieces of proposed legislation died, including the revisions to the Copyright Act and Bill C-10, that had contained controversial provisions dealing with criteria for the certification of film and video productions under the Income Tax Act. The next government can choose to put legislation back on the Order Paper at the same point of where they were when Parliament was dissolved. This is almost certainly what will happen to both C-61 (revisions to the Copyright Act) and possibly to C-10. Three federal budgets have been passed by the 39th Parliament. This is in itself remarkable given the fragility of a minority government attempting to pass budgetary measures.
On the budgetary policy side of the ledger, the government adopted the expenditure review process introduced by its predecessor. Under this process departments are asked to review their budgets and reallocate funds from lower areas of priority to higher areas of priority either within the department or to pan-governmental priorities. In addition to this annual exercise, the government also initiated a strategic review process to conduct another review of expenses by government departments. The recently announced spending cuts to arts and culture programs and services are the result of the strategic review process.
The budgetary balance sheet: A preliminary analysis
The CCA has been asked several times over the past week what the balance sheet looks like from the angle of investing in arts and culture. This is a question which is not easily answered and on which we are still working. Having said that, it is possible to establish the following facts, which don’t necessarily give the full and detailed picture we hope to be able to draw from a comparison of a variety of budget related documents published during the life of the 39th Parliament.
In 2007-2008, the Federal government has dedicated more than $ 3.3 billion to the various activities of the arts and culture sector, including the budget of the Department of Canadian Heritage, the CBC, the Canada Council for the Arts and other national arts and culture institutions. According to Canadian Conference of the Arts’ Annual Federal Budget Analysis, the overall spending on arts and culture has been fairly stable over the past three years. However, there have been material reallocations of money within the overall part of the federal budget dedicated to arts and culture.
The Canada Council has received $ 50 million one-time increases to its budget spread over 2006-07 and 2007-08, and, this year, a $30 M recurrent increase to its base budget. $100 M has been invested by the government in much needed cultural infrastructure (at the National Arts Centre and at national museums). An important investment has been promised for the first national museum to be built and maintained outside of the national capital region (the Canadian Museum for Canadian Rights in Winnipeg). Most cultural agencies (the CBC, Telefilm, the federal government’s contribution to the Canadian Television Fund, the National Film Board, etc.) have pretty much been maintained at the status quo level. A new annual budget of $ 8 million has been allocated to the support local festivals of all kinds and the Arts Presentation Program of the Department of Heritage has been increased by $ 7 million a year.
On the other side of the ledger, no progress has been made toward a new federal museum policy and its accompanying increased budget to help preserve our common heritage, while significant cuts have been made to the museum community by cutting the Museum Assistance Program ($4.6M) and putting an end to the Exhibition Transportation Services. The National Portrait Gallery project has been put for auction to nine Canadian cities and to the private sector. At Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the PromArt Program, first reduced by $5,9 million in 2006, will be completely abolished at the end of the current fiscal year ($4.7M). TradeRoutes, another program promoting our culture abroad, has been axed ($9 million). The E-Culture programme, including the Canadian Cultural Observatory, has been abolished ($4.4 million) and budgets for cultural statistics at Statistics Canada have been considerably reduced. Other cuts which have emerged over the past month add another $ 60 million (including PromArt and TradeRoutes) to the total reductions to program and services for the arts and culture sector. Those latest cuts affect mainly the dissemination of Canadian culture abroad, the training of a creative workforce to position Canada internationally, and the production, distribution and preservation of New Media content.
Tell me more
The remarkable success story of the 39th Parliament is the number of bills that were passed by Parliament while the government was in a minority position. In the First Session, a total of 59 government bills received Royal Assent in addition to a further three Senate sponsored bills. Among these bills were:
-
C-2 – Federal Accountability Act
-
C-13 – Budget implementation Bill (Budget 2006-07)
-
C-16 – Fixed Election Date Bill
-
C-47 - 2010 Olympic Games Trademark Bill
-
C-49 – 2006-07 Supplementary Estimates
-
C-50 - 2007-08 Main Estimates
-
C-52 – Budget Implementation Bill (Budget 2007-08)
At the end of the summer 2007, the Prime Minister decided to prorogue Parliament with the result that it ends the first session of the 39th Parliament. The second session started on October 17, 2007 by a Speech from the Throne delivered by the Governor General. The Second Session saw a total of 60 government bills receive Royal Assent and a single Senate sponsored bill on the Canada-United States Tax Convention Bill.
Among these bills were;
-
C-41 - Community Development Trust Bill
-
C-42 – Museums Act Bill
-
C-48 Supplementary Estimates 2007-2008
-
C-49 and C-58 Main Estimates 2008-2009
Some of the 35 bills that died on the Order Paper include:
-
Bill C-10 Canadian Film Tax Credit Bill
-
C-19 –Senate Tenure Bill
-
C-20- Senate Selection Bill
-
C-61 – Revisions to the Copyright Act
-
C-62 – Not for Profit Corporations Bill
During the 39th Parliament the government convened or received reports from a number of expert panels to advise it on key policy issues. These included;
Each of these Panels submitted a variety of recommendations to the government. In the case of the Blue Ribbon Panel on Grants and Contributions, the Treasury Board has indicated that it is moving to implement many of the constructive recommendations contained in the Panel’s Report. The other Panels recommendations have not yet worked their way to implementation or wholesale policy changes.
|
