CCA Bulletin 04/07

Ottawa, Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Mid-Winter Update from Parliament Hill

CBC Mandate Review

Changes within the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage

Canadian Television Fund crisis and other issues

The Canada Council for the Arts launches special 50th anniversary website

The House of Commons resumed sitting last Monday, January 29 th, marking the beginning of a session that many expect will lead to another federal election. As to when the timing of any future voting might occur that is as good as anyone's guess and local psychics around Parliament Hill appear to be doing quite a booming business these days!

Each week's new edition of The Hill Times arrives full of all kind of speculative teasers: Will an election result from the expected March 20 th federal budget? Or, will the budget be announced later than anticipated, or earlier, and how would that affect things? Could the budget pass a potential confidence motion, delaying a trip to the polls until the fall or perhaps even next year?

One thing that is certain is the Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA) will continue to advance its policy agenda for Canadian arts and culture at the federal level in advance of (and during!) any possible federal election. In the meantime, here are a few recent developments in Ottawa worth noting:

CBC Mandate Review

As expected, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage announced last week that it will proceed with “A Full Investigation of the Role for a Public Broadcaster in the 21 st Century”. Organizations and individuals interested in making a presentation to the Committee have until Monday February 26 th to file their maximum 10-page brief, in the official language of Canada of their choice. The CCA will certainly draft a written intervention and we would be pleased to receive comments from members and supporters by 5PM Friday February 16th at info@ccarts.ca about the issues they would like to see dealt with in this study. Please consult the Parliamentary document in order to assess what questions are being posed by the Standing Committee in terms of the mandate for their work.

The Committee was scheduled to start its review this Thursday, but has been delayed 2 weeks in order to get through the CTF crisis that emerged in the last two weeks. MPs expect to interview as many as 72 witnesses in Ottawa right through to May, and will be traveling in the break weeks: St. John ' s, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Montréal and Toronto are confirmed so far, with the possibility of some small-town meetings and a trip to the far North (Yellowknife is a possibility). The Committee aims to have the draft report done by mid-June – unless, of course, there's an election before that!

Changes within the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage

And speaking of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, avid political watchers will want to know there were some roster changes over the holidays to “the who's who” in terms of Committee members.

Tina Keeper, a first-time Liberal MP for Churchill, Manitoba who served on the Committee in the last Parliamentary session, has been named Canadian Heritage critic for the Hon. Stephane Dion's newly-minted “shadow cabinet”. Ms. Keeper, perhaps best known for her role on CBC TV's “North of 60”, takes over for the Hon. Mauril Bélanger, who was reassigned as the Liberal critic for Infrastructure.

The CCA would like to thank Monsieur Bélanger for the effort and energy he brought to his role in the previous House session, and we look forward to working with Ms. Keeper (whom we met with last week for the first time) as she assumes her new role. The CCA would also like to congratulate four other new members on their appointment to the Standing Committee for the new session of the 39 th Parliament of Canada: Diane Bourgeois (Bloc Québécois MP, Terrebonne-Blainville); Gord Brown (Conservative MP, Leeds-Grenville); Andy Scott (Liberal MP, Fredericton ) and Hedy Fry (Liberal MP, Vancouver Centre).

Canadian Television Fund crisis and other issues

Last, and further to the previous CCA Bulletin 03/07, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage has adopted a motion to conduct a study on February 8 th regarding the current state of the disputed Canadian Television Fund (CTF). The Hon. Bev Oda, Minister of Canadian Heritage, released a statement following her January 30th meeting with “the principal funders of the CTF”, and the situation appears far from being resolved.

Between the CTF and the 21 st Century public broadcasting review, not to mention various government programs (like its Traveling Exhibitions policy) up for statutory review and persistent rumours that new draft copyright legislation might (perhaps?) be introduced, there are plenty of activities and issues to keep the Standing Committee on Heritage occupied for some time to come. The CCA will continue to monitor any and all developments, which we will share with our members and supporters via the bulletin.

The Canada Council for the Arts launches special 50th anniversary website

2007 is the 50th anniversary of the Canada Council for the Arts. For five decades, the Council has given Canadians access to their own stories through the imagination of artists in every corner of the country. As you will see, while celebrating past achievements, the Council is deliberately looking to the future and concentrates on arts, culture and the younger generation of Canadians.

Want to know more about Canadian artists? Check out the artists' stories and historical timeline. Looking for arts events in your area? The Council has up-to-date information on arts events, including over 100 events across Canada dedicated to the Council's 50th anniversary.