CCA Bulletin 28/09

December 1, 2009

Update on CCA Activities

The past several weeks have been quite busy here at the Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA) and it is about time I bring you up to date on what has been going on, particularly on the advocacy front. In this bulletin, I will discuss the following:

Creation of an all-party Arts Caucus on Parliament Hill

Let us start with the most recent news.  On November 25th the CCA was invited to make a presentation to Parliament’s ‘All-Party Arts Caucus’. An initiative of the NDP, the Arts Caucus is meant to give opportunities for Parliamentarians from both the House of Commons and the Senate to meet with representatives of the arts and culture communities. The goal is to become better informed about the realities of the sector and the challenges it faces, in a non-partisan context and outside of the formal processes of Parliament.

This is a welcome development on the Hill as, unfortunately, political processes are too often highly partisan. Hearings of the Standing Committee on Heritage are often used by MPs to score political points or put long-winded statements on the record rather than to ask probing questions of the witnesses they have called on to appear at taxpayers’ expense.

Arts Caucus members do not want to duplicate the work of existing Parliamentary Committees and some of them were very clear also that they view this as an opportunity to get better acquainted with the cultural sector, not to be lobbied on specific issues. Although, to the extent that better understanding should influence decision-making, I would say that the distinction may be difficult to sustain at times!

The not yet official list of the Arts Caucus includes ten Conservatives MPs, eighteen NDP, six Liberals, and four members of the Bloc Québécois. Three Senators have expressed an interest, of which two are Liberals and one is a Conservative. One can only hope that the list will grow and that attendance will remain strong!

The CCA was invited to make the first presentation to the Arts Caucus and to provide a brief bird’s eye view of the Canadian arts and culture sector. I began by introducing the Canadian Conference of the Arts to the Caucus and explain the unique role it plays within the cultural sector.  Based on statistics currently available, I painted the profile of the typical Canadian artist (if such a creature exists!) and emphasized the important contributions that arts make to all facets of Canadian society, from education and health to community building, public safety, and diplomacy. Noting that each of these should be the object of a separate presentation, I used the short time at our disposal to focus primarily on the contribution of arts and culture to Canada’s economy.

There is no doubt that this all-party Arts Caucus is an important initiative on the part of Parliamentarians. I have assured them of the full cooperation of the CCA to facilitate their access to the sector, in order to foster open discussion and a forum for guests to better inform our federal decision-makers. I look forward to being invited back and having the time to delve deeper into policy issues and concerns of the arts and culture sector.

If your organization is interested in making a presentation to the All Party Arts Caucus, you can get in touch with the Caucus Chair, Ms. Denise Savoie, at (613) 996-2358, or by Fax: (613) 952-1458 or Email: SavoiD@parl.gc.ca

The quest for cultural statistics

Canada once had an enviable international reputation when it came to cultural statistics. The work of Statistics Canada used to be referred to by no less than its British counterpart! Unfortunately, over the past 15 years or so, we have witnessed a progressive deterioration of the situation. This deterioration has been the result of several factors, all having to do with budget deficit fighting in the 1990s and successive cuts, the most recent resulting from last year’s Strategic Review exercise.

The Board of the CCA recently decided that the organization would seek to reverse that trend as one of its top priorities. As Chair of Statistics Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Cultural Statistics, I am glad to work closely with officials of both Stats Can and the Department of Heritage to ensure that the cultural sector and the government have access to reliable and timely statistics. Statistics are essential to the development of this very important sector of activity within Canadian society and to the evaluation of policies and programs put in place to support it.

This is why the CCA has participated actively in the recent broadened consultation following the review of the Conceptual Framework. The Framework is designed to establish what will be measured and as such is the very foundation of the collection of data and of statistical analysis. The recent revision aims at improving the 2004 Framework, particularly with regards to new interactive media and to crafts.

The CCA never misses an opportunity to sensitize our MPs and government officials of the importance for the government to invest in the improvement of cultural statistics, a point I raised with the Arts Caucus last week and in front of the Standing Committee on Finance in September. I will keep you informed of future developments in this crucial but unfortunately not “politically sexy” issue. I would also strongly urge you to underline the importance of good statistics when you meet you local MP or with government officials when you come to Ottawa.

CCA to the CRTC: If “the market” will not deliver Canadian programming, you are there to make sure it happens by regulating the sector!

I was in front of the CRTC once again last week in the never ending saga of hearings on the future of conventional television services. As stated in my presentation, this was an opportunity for the voice of the arts and culture sector to be heard above the din created by the unseemly school yard brawl that has erupted between Canada’s major broadcasters and distributors. 

CCA’s position is that it is imperative to reestablish Canadian programming expenditures quotas (30% of revenue) on broadcasters. As for the quarrel about whether cable and satellite operators should pay over the air broadcasters for carrying their signals, as they do for specialty services and as is done in the USA, the CCA has stated several times that it supports this approach provided that the money raised is used to produce better local and national programming, particularly in drama. And given the huge profit margin enjoyed by cable operators ($ 2 billion in 2008), the best way to protect consumers is to reintroduce regulation for basic cable rates.

CCA’s approach is rooted in the cultural objectives and regulation mechanisms established in the Broadcasting Act. However, our advice is being met with strong resistance from CRTC Commissioners who argue that regulation is the way of the past and that bringing it back would be contrary to the strong deregulation process started several years ago. The reply to that, of course, is that Parliament has empowered the Commission to regulate when the market approach will not deliver on the cultural objectives of the Act, something for which we currently have ample evidence!

I am to reappear again next week in front of the Commission, when it holds yet another hearing, this one on order from the government, to examine the impact on consumers of establishing a value for signal (otherwise known as fee for carriage) for traditional broadcasters.

The Cultural Policy 101 Workshops

Over the past two months, I have had the opportunity to present CCA’s workshop The Politics of Art and the Art of Politics to various audiences in Regina, Peterborough, Kingston, Waterloo and St. John’s. Due to a bad cold, I had to postpone my visits to Sudbury and Sault-Ste-Marie until January. More than fifteen communities and organizations have already expressed an interest in the presentation.

I will be on the road again throughout the spring, which will give me an opportunity to meet with cultural stakeholders in parts of the country I have not yet been able to visit. If your organization is interested in the workshop, please contact Megan Forsythe at (613) 238-3561, ext. 18 or at megan@ccarts.ca .

And finally, a good piece of news…

Finally I am glad to report that the Minister of Canadian Heritage, the Hon. James Moore, has renewed CCA’s annual contribution agreement for 2010-11 with a small increase of great symbolic value: it is the first such increase since the $ 100 K cut imposed in 2006 by the incoming government.

Minister Moore’s letter goes on to say that “in expending these contribution monies, I am confident that you and the Canadian Conference of the Arts will continue to promote the encouragement and advancement of the arts and culture in Canada, helping Canadians to appreciate the role of the arts and culture in our society.”