CCA Bulletin 05/08

February 27, 2008

The 2008-09 Federal Budget: Much Ado about Nothing

Just the Facts

The challenge that the Minister of Finance, the Hon. James Flaherty, grappled with in his third budget was how to build in measures to advance the government’s priorities while leaving some maneuvering room to deal with any spill-over from American economic woes.

To do this, the Minister opted for a prudent amount of new spending and a similar economy with the Budget Speech itself, which was among the shortest in recent memory, taking only 450 lines of text.

For those in the arts and culture sector, the Budget contained no surprise, except maybe that most of the money coming out of Canadian Heritage Portfolio in the budget review exercise seems to have been reinvested there. There is also the slim hope that the infrastructure money might be applied to arts and cultural institutions as these funds are invested. There is a Public-Private Partnership Office with a budget of $1.257 billion. We have seen this public/private model recently applied in the creation of the Canadian Museum of Human Rights and the on-going bidding process to host the Portrait Gallery of Canada.

The $ 30 million that the government added to the base budget of the Canada Council for the Arts was not mentioned in the Budget but it will be found in the Main Estimates expected in the coming days.

The budget added resources in relatively modest amounts for senior citizens  ($60 million), Aboriginal Canadians ($ 560 million) and post secondary education and advanced research ($ 419 million), some of which may trickle to artists and creators.

The government will also invest $ 9 million over two years in the renewal of four of its National Museums (The National Gallery of Canada, The Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Canada Science and Technology Museum and the Canadian Museum of Nature) to address operating and infrastructure pressures. This investment is not new as such since it appears to come from money in the Museums envelope identified in the $ 1 billion reallocation exercise which preceded the budget.

Another area that may have benefits for the arts is the investment by the government in the run-up to The Vancouver 2010 Winter Games and the Beijing Olympics in 2008. The host nation is required to stage cultural festivals and special events as a part of the Olympic celebrations. The budget provides  $ 140 million for amateur athletes and $ 25 million for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympics Torch Relays. This is in addition to federal funding for the Olympics that has previously been announced, including funding for the cultural component of the Games.

Tell Me More

The brevity of the budget speech provides a clear picture of the scope of the 2008-09 federal budget.

While the arts and culture sector may wonder what became of the federal museums policy, of investments in the expanded cultural facilities in Toronto and Montreal or of other new initiatives, the good news is that at least, federal spending on the arts and culture was not reduced against the contingency of an economic slow-down.

It is clear that the Minister of Finance and his Cabinet colleagues faced the prospect of marginal surpluses in the coming years as their principal preoccupation. Preserving the status quo may well be the most the cultural sector may hope for.

In the coming days, the CCA will analyze the Main Estimates, which will give us a more comprehensive look at the implications of the 2008-09 Budget on programs and services within the federal government that benefit the arts and culture sector.

And as usual, in the near future, the CCA will produce its annual, more comprehensive, analysis of the federal budget and the host of economic data that the Department of Finance has included as background information to Budget.