CCA Bulletin 18/09

June 29, 2009

From the Desk of Alain Pineau: News from the CCA

The warm weather seems to have finally arrived to the Eastern part of the country… but without the promise of a summer of leisure for the CCA! We have completed our move to our new office space and are emerging from our boxes. Phones are back in order and so is our email, both having stayed the same despite the change of premises. The CCA Secretariat is now back in business after a short interruption and will take advantage of the summer to plan for what promises to be a busy schedule in the fall, with the ever-looming specter of another federal election within the next several months!

As if moving the office was not enough, the last two weeks also saw a meeting of our Board as well as the Annual General Meeting of members (AGM)! The latter was attended by some 25 members from all over the country, partly thanks to the fact that our sister organization, the Cultural Human Resources Council, had synchronized its own meetings with ours. Our new President, Kathleen Sharpe, reported that 2008-2009 was a remarkable year for the CCA, during which the oldest and largest arts and culture umbrella organization made important progress in the refocusing and rebuilding process launched by the Board of Governors in 2005. For the first time, the organization has started planning on a three year cycle based on the strategic alignment of its activities and resources. At the same time, a series of events, some planned, some unforeseen, converged to give the CCA a profile it had not attained in some time.

In her report,  President Sharpe mentioned that the value of the CCA in providing authoritative and non-partisan information was clearly demonstrated through the public reaction following the cancellation, last summer, of important arts and culture programs and the impact this issue had over the federal election. CCA’s analyses and election material were referred to widely and used extensively by our membership and beyond. This was demonstrated by the dozens of times the CCA was quoted in the media. Our analysis of arts and culture budgets under the 39th Parliament was even quoted during the French Leaders Debate during the electoral campaign!

In terms of activities, my own report as National Director stressed the fact that 2008-09 was a very busy one indeed for the CCA: over fifty bulletins and three research reports published in twelve months; several interventions in front of parliamentary committees and the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission on a variety of topics; a public debate on Cultural Diplomacy in June 2008 in Toronto; a series of 14 Regional Forums across the country, leading to a Chalmers National Strategy Workshop held in Ottawa in March and attended by over 100 participants.

There is only one somber item against this list of remarkable achievements: the organization has ended the year with a $ 45 K deficit, which reflects the fact that despite considerable efforts at limiting expenses and increasing revenue, the CCA has not yet recovered from the 20% cut made in 2006 to its Contribution Agreement with the federal government. On the positive side, I hasten to add that we have adopted a deficit reduction plan which should wipe out this debt within the current year.

The Board meeting which preceded the AGM gave the opportunity to the Board to weigh in on the updating of the CCA three-year Strategic Plan and to review the research activities planned for the coming year and beyond. It  was also the occasion for us to say good-bye to a most valuable member of the CCA team: Keith Kelly, our Senior Policy Advisor, has indeed decided that after thirteen years at the CCA (including ten as National Director in the 1990s), it was time for him to pass the torch on. Keith’s inspirational departure letter was read into the proceedings of the AGM, along with our warmest thanks for the services he has rendered to the organization. Words of thanks were also extended to our former President, Robert Spickler, whose leadership and experience helped the CCA through a very difficult period of its history. Over the past three and a half years, Robert made an enormous contribution towards putting the CCA back on the road to recovery, and for that, we all owe him our gratitude.

The AGM was also the occasion to pay tribute to two great Canadians who have recently passed away. The first is CCA’s lifetime Honorary Member Paul Siren. As a member of the Board of Governors, in his service as Vice-President and finally President of the CCA, Paul Siren helped the organization deal with complex and controversial issues in a logical and timely manner.  But even more importantly, the CCA will always be enormously grateful for the many contributions that Paul made to the welfare of the arts and artists in Canada and around the world. His unfailing common sense and wisdom were rare assets which he used unsparingly for the benefit of others in the arts and beyond. His collaboration with Québec playwright and actor Gratien Gélinas led Canada to be the first signatory of the UNESCO Belgrade Recommendations on the Status of the Artist, and to implement legislation at the federal level to promote and protect the socio-economic status of our artists and creators.

We also mourn the death of the internationally renowned filmmaker Allan King, the recipient of 2008 Diplôme d’honneur of the CCA. We feel greatly privileged to have been able to honour this luminary of Canadian cinema at the March 12 Award Ceremony presided over by Senator Tommy Banks and at which we also honoured the president of Culture Montréal, Simon Brault, who received the Keith Kelly Award for Cultural Leadership.

On the eve of Canada Day and of well-deserved breaks for all of you, let me wish you a good summer. Rest assured that the CCA will be continue to work on your behalf throughout the summer months, as we prepare our annual federal budget submission and pursue the cultural strategic planning initiated in the wake of the March 2009 meetings.