CCA Bulletin 22/09

September 10, 2009

The CCA's 2009 Federal Budget Analysis:

Finding Solid Ground?

Today the Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA) publishes its 2009 Budget Analysis which examines federal funding for arts, culture and heritage from 2008/09 - 2009/10. This analysis looks at organizational and funding changes within the Department of Canadian Heritage (DCH); federal funding of key programs across the arts, heritage and cultural agencies and industries as well as crown agencies. It also covers other noteworthy developments affecting the sector.

The main findings

The title of the analysis (Finding solid ground?) seeks to capture one of the main themes of the cultural sector on a more solid financial footing with the recently announced five-year renewal of key cultural programs.

For some time now, partly because of political instability, the sector has suffered from the absence of any governmental vision or long-term strategy for culture. As was mentioned in previous CCA federal budget analyses, funding commitments of two years maximum; the abandonment of previous commitments (e.g. a new museum policy or the revision of CBC’s mandate); some surprise funding initiatives not reflective of any of the sector’s expressed priorities; the lack of coherence and transparency in decision-making, all of that led many observers to conclude that the government has no long-term vision for culture, neither domestically nor on the international scene.

Last years’ reductions to a number of cultural programs have made it even more difficult to determine the government’s intentions regarding cultural policies. However, the latest development seems to indicate that the federal government may be changing its approach and that it recognizes the importance of stable multi-year funding for the sector. Hopefully, this will signal the beginning of a reflection leading to longer-term policy development for this important sector of activity.

Despite the global economic downturn and financial crisis, the government has maintained cultural spending. Budget 2009 announced $535 million worth of funding over two years to the arts, heritage and cultural industries. Of this amount, $276 million represents new funding spread over two years, with the remainder consisting of program renewals.

$174 million represents new funding for the 2009/10 fiscal year and is broken down as follows:

$30 million in additional funding to the Cultural Spaces Canada program,
$7 million in additional funding to the National Arts Training Contribution Program,
$50 million to support marquee festivals and tourism-promoting events,
$25 million for creation of the Canada Prizes for the Arts and Creativity,
$60 million for upgrades to national historic sites,
$2 million to draft a plan for the future of the Manège Militaire in Québec City.

Adding to this good news was the end of June announcement that the government is renewing, at their current level of funding, a number of key cultural programs and spending for a period of five years, an announcement which caused some welcome surprise. The total spending commitment is $642 million from 2010/11 to 2014/15 is as follows:

$33.8 million annually to the Canada Cultural Investment Fund (formerly the Canadian Arts and Heritage Sustainability Program);
$30 million in annual funding to the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund (formerly Cultural Spaces Canada);
$18 million per year to the Canada Arts Presentation Fund (the provisionally renamed Arts Presentation Canada program; including base funding to this program, the annual total is $33.4 million);
$27.6 million per year for the Canada Music Fund;
an ongoing commitment of an additional $25 million to the Canada Council for the Arts, which maintains the Council’s total annual appropriation to $181 million for the next five years;
finally, a follow-through on a Budget 2009 commitment: $24.1 million in annual funding for five years to the Canada Arts Training Fund (formerly the National Arts Training Contribution Program).

While some important programs for book publishing are still waiting for similar renewal, this announcement is excellent news for artists and arts organizations and provides invaluable stability to the sector for the coming years. It is also a stark contrast to the $74 million of funding cuts undertaken by the government since April 2008. Last summer’s Strategic Review process resulted in $45 million in funding reductions, including cuts to a number of components of Canadian Culture Online, cutbacks to the Canadian Arts and Heritage Sustainability Program, cutbacks in the audiovisual sector (the National Training Program for the Film and Video Sector, the Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund, and two components of the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada), reductions in book and periodical publishing expenditures (funding reductions to the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and to the Canada Magazine Fund), and elimination of program funding to the Arts Promotion Program and Trade Routes. In fall 2008, a further $29 million was de facto cut when the government decided to cancel the project to construct a home for the Portrait Gallery of Canada.

Tell me more

For this fiscal year, looking at the ‘big picture’ of funding across the Department of Canadian Heritage and the main government organizations in the sector, overall funding levels in the 2009/10 Main Estimates and Supplementary Estimates A have experienced a modest decline over last year’s Main Estimates figures. Almost half of the organizations experienced small funding increases (Department of Canadian Heritage, Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Museum of Civilization, National Museum of Science and Technology and the National Film Board), three experienced small funding declines (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, National Gallery of Canada and Telefilm Canada) and the remainder experienced significant declines due mainly to the conclusion of funding for one-time capital projects (Library and Archives of Canada, National Arts Centre and Canadian Museum of Nature).

This fiscal year was the first for which the Canadian Museum for Human Rights received funding in the Main Estimates. It must be noted that additional funding may accrue to the sector through further supplementary estimates (Supplementary Estimates A have been released, but additional supplementary expenditures are likely forthcoming in the fall).

In 2009/10, the Department substantially restructured the way it conceives of and reports on its activities. The new structure represents good news for the arts and culture sector because expenditures on arts, cultural industries and heritage are now grouped under a single Strategic Outcome and totals for each item are provided. Not only does this new structure make more sense intuitively, it also facilitates tracking year-over-year spending changes in the arts, cultural industries and heritage sub-sectors. Of note, as of 2009/10, multiculturalism programming has been transferred from the Department of Canadian Heritage to the Department of Citizenship and Immigration.

The Budget 2009 and program renewal announcements benefited exclusively the Department’s Strategic Outcome comprising the arts and cultural industries. The program renewals provide long-term stability for the arts sector, but substantial funding declines appear to be on the horizon for the cultural industries due largely to program in need of renewal. The Book Publishing Industry Development Program, for example, is due for renewal in March 2010. The Department has not yet indicated whether it plans to renew this program.

Funding to individual programs within the Department of Canadian Heritage remained relatively stable, with the notable exception of the programs experiencing funding cuts due to the 2008 Strategic Review. Funding declined to departmental programs outside of the cultural sector, specifically funding to sport.

What can I do? Looking forward to Budget 2010

Moving on from the 2009 federal budget, in August, the CCA submitted its submission for the 2010 pre-budget consultation. This outlined our goals for ensuring the sector remain stable, and able to continue evolving in the innovative fashion expected of arts and culture.