CCA Bulletin 48/06

Ottawa, November 17, 2006

CCA Analysis of the 2006-2007 Supplementary Estimates (A)

Just the Facts

The 2006-2007 Supplementary Estimates (A) were tabled in the House of Commons recently. Of interest to members and supporters of the Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA) is the combination of new funding, as well as internal transfers of existing funding, announced for the Department of Canadian Heritage (DCH), including its agencies and crown corporations.

The new funding received is fairly minimal - outside of about $5 million to Library and Archives and the National Film Board (NFB) combined, the rest of the funding is comprised either of money that was already announced (the $20 million increase to the Canada Council), money that was owing to the sector in any event (the $9.7 to the Book Publishing Industry Development Program [BPIDP] that has been anticipated since the tabling of the Main Estimates), or new funding for purposes outside of arts, heritage and the cultural industries. This last category includes items such as: $30 million for the Global Centre for Pluralism, $12 million for the Games Hosting Program, and the roughly $12 million for multiculturalism related programs and initiatives.

Thus, the bulk of the funding changes announced in the supplementary estimates ($16 million) represent funding transfers from one part of the DCH portfolio to another, which are detailed in the following text and the linked tables posted at CCA's @gora.

Tell Me More.

Table 1 summarizes the new funding and funding transfers presented in the Supplementary Estimates. Virtually all funding transfers represent transfers within the DCH portfolio (i.e. transfer of funding from one purpose to another). The purposes of the new or transferred funds shown in Table 2 are as follows: 

Arts

Canada Council for the Arts : The $20 million in additional funding announced in Budget 2006 appears in the Supplementary Estimates (this is normal as the Main Estimates did not reflect the $20 million - budget announcements are typically rolled in to the Supplementary Estimates when they are tabled). There is an additional $965,000 in new funding to the Council: the development of Official Language Minority Communities ($600,000), the Canada Music Fund ($250,000) and the Commission internationale du théâtre francophone ($115,000).

National Arts Centre : Transfer of $2.1 million made up of $1 million for the Québec Scène Festival, $ 600,000 for 'the creation of cultural content on-line and other digitization projects', $350,000 for the development of Official Language Minority Communities and $168,000 for the Governor General Performing Arts Awards. 

Broadcasting and Audiovisual Production

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation : Transfer of $2 million for 'the creation of cultural content on-line and other digitization projects' and an internal reallocation of $33.7 million 'for capital projects related to English and French language radio and television services'.

National Film Board of Canada : Transfer of $2.9 million for 'the creation of cultural content on-line and other digitization projects' ($2.5 million) and the development of Official Language Minority Communities ($420,000). The NFB also received new appropriations of $3.2 million, which represent a carry forward of $3.4 million in operating budget, less $190,000 in 2005 Expenditure Review Committee Savings (the Supplementary Estimates do not indicate what the NFB cut back as part of this expenditure review process).

Telefilm Canada : Transfer of $20.4 million out of Telefilm Canada to DCH for the Canadian Television Fund. This money now appears as a DCH expenditure on the Canadian Television Fund, a result of the implementation of the new and simplified CTF governance framework, as announced in the recently published DCH Plans and Priorities. Telefilm Canada also received a $550,000 transfer for the development of Official Language Minority Communities.

Heritage

Canadian Museum of Civilization : Transfer of $1,554,250 for 'the creation of cultural content on-line and other digitization projects.'

National Museum of Science and Technology : Transfer of $323,620 for 'the creation of cultural content on-line and other digitization projects.'

Library and Archives of Canada : Transfer of $3.5 million, for 'the creation of cultural content on-line and other digitization projects' ($2.5 million), preservation and accessibility of Canada 's films ($550,000) and the creation of the Dictionary of Canadian Biographies ($400,000). The organization received a new appropriation for an operating budget carrying forward ($2.2 million) and collecting, processing, etc., the political papers of the Right Honourable Paul Martin ($481,000). The new appropriations were partially supported with funding available at Library and Archives from the 2005 Expenditure Review process ($610,000) and existing funding to the organization ($626,000).

Department of Canadian Heritage (DCH)

The Department has received an additional $73.8 million in Voted Appropriations for a variety of purposes. Most of the new monies received accrue to purposes other than arts or cultural industries, with more than half of the new monies allotted to the new Global Centre for Pluralism ($30 million), 'which advocates pluralism as a foundation for good governance and human development through research in and dialogue about ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious diversity,' (p.131, Supplementary Estimates) and to sport ($12 million to the Games' Hosting Program).

A number of smaller funding allotments appear for programs and initiatives associated with multiculturalism: funding to the Multiculturalism Program ($5.9 million), funding to support programs dealing with discrimination faced by various communities during wartime and in immigration ($1.96 million for the National Historical Recognition Program, $2.7 million in symbolic payments as a result of the Chinese Head Tax, $1.4 million to Community Historical Recognition Program).

The Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) received an additional $9.67 million, which brings its funding level in line with previous years' funding. As mentioned in the CCA's 2006 Budget analysis, the 2006-2007 Main Estimates brought a decline for BPIDP funding, but sources in the department indicated at the time that funding would be forthcoming in the supplementary estimates, which has turned out to be the case.

Of note, some of these new appropriations have been defrayed by governmental measures: $1.75 million in the 2005 Expenditure Review Committee process and $6.12 million in the 2006 Expenditure Restraint initiative

It is important to note that the Supplementary Estimates do not provide information as to the "losers" in this process, i.e., the programs or other budget line items that were cut back as a result of these expenditure reductions.

Other Expenditures

The Supplementary Estimates A also include an additional $100,000 to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) for grants in aid of cultural relations, namely in support of the International Centre of Film for Children and Young People.