CCA Bulletin 20/07
Ottawa, May 11, 2007
The CCA looks for government leadership on the issue of federal grants and contributions
Of grants and contribution agreements
The Canada Council for the arts launches a consultation
CCA Vice President honoured
The Grants and contribution agreements file
The Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA) has, for some time now, been making the case for less onerous accountability requirements that should be reflective of the amounts of money in question. The CCA was pleased to see that the Blue Ribbon Panel (BRP) on Grants and Contributions’ final report, released on Valentine’s Day this year, endorsed this position in its recommendations.
Notably, the Panel also recommended that multi-year funding be standardized and that grant and contribution recipients be given more flexibility in the management of funds within the overall project budgets. The CCA recently wrote to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, the Hon. Bev Oda, in order to encourage her to work with her colleagues in Government to bring about immediate changes in keeping with the recommendations of the BRP report.
Grants and contributions represent an annual expenditure of almost $27 billion for the federal government and the BRP reinforced previous assessments as to the efficiency and economical advantages of this approach to deliver valuable services to Canadians. The report presented a wide range of consensus amongst the recipients of grants and contributions who uniformly complained of onerous accountability requirements, delays in decision-making and/or the release of funds. Interveners also told the Panel that there should be uniform standards for program design, evaluation, and administration across the federal government’s network of departments and agencies.
The Panel addressed these concerns with 32 clear, sensible recommendations to eliminate overly complex accountability measures and to establish program administration standards as well as clear definitions and terms for grants and contributions throughout the federal system. Like many other Canadian umbrella organizations, the CCA has heard consistently and constantly from its members about the increasing “accountability burden” in recent years, as well as the difficulties for grant recipients to plan on future operations in the absence of multi-year funding, all counterproductive practices which actually lead to a waste of efforts and of public funds, thence our call for immediate action: there is no time like the present for constructive action on this front!
The Canada Council for the Arts Seeks Input on Future Directions
The Canada Council for the Arts, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, is asking the arts community and the public to help guide the future directions of the national arts funding agency.
In developing its Strategic Plan for 2008-2011, the Canada Council will be holding consultations over the next two months with a wide range of service organizations representing various components of the arts community, as well as other provincial, territorial and regional arts funders and federal departments and agencies. The Council is also enabling other interested individuals and organizations to provide their input through its web site.
The Council’s strategic plan will be developed over the summer and early fall, and will be reviewed by the Board of the Canada Council during its 50th anniversary meeting in Montreal in October 2007. Once approved by the Board, it will be released to the public and posted on the Council’s web site.
CCA Vice-President Honoured
In an April 12 ceremony, Karl Siegler, owner of Talonbooks, received the Gray Campbell Distinguished Service Award 2007 for his outstanding contribution to the book industry in British Columbia. Currently Karl is vice-president of the Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA) and chairman of our policy and advocacy committee.
As well as being a committed and passionate publisher of award-winning literary, scholarly and ethnographic titles, Siegler has been instrumental in shaping public policy for literary publishing, writing documents which led to important programs such as the BC Arts Council's Block Funding for Publishers and the Library Book Purchase Plan. He is also a co-founder and past president of the Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia, a founding member of the board of directors of Simon Fraser University's Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing and the Master of Publishing Program. He has been president of the Association of Canadian Publishers twice and co-founded the Literary Press Group, serving as its chairman for several terms.
The CCA warmly congratulates our colleague Karl on this well-deserved accomplishment and are pleased that his cultural policy leadership is being acknowledged by his appreciative peers.
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