ARTICULATING A VISION FOR A FEDERAL CULTURAL POLICY — CHALMERS CONFERENCE PROVIDES SPRINGBOARD FOR CCA NOVEMBER NATIONAL POLICY CONFERENCE

Ottawa, April 21, 2005 — With nearly one hun­dred par­tic­i­pants from across the coun­try in

atten­dance, the 6th Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts Chalmers Con­fer­ence came to a

suc­cess­ful con­clu­sion Fri­day, April 15th. Orga­nized around the theme of “Advo­cacy and the

Par­lia­men­tary Process”, the one-day con­fer­ence fea­tured a vari­ety of pre­sen­ta­tions and panel

dis­cus­sions designed to fur­ther equip del­e­gates with the knowl­edge and infor­ma­tion required

for ongo­ing advocacy.

 

The event opened with a net­work­ing break­fast, co-hosted by the National Arts Cen­tre, which

was open to both indi­vid­u­als and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of cul­tural orga­ni­za­tions.  The keynote

speaker was Wendy Lill, a play­wright and for­mer NDP MP. Draw­ing on her back­ground as

Cul­ture critic and mem­ber of the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Cana­dian Her­itage for seven years,

Lill urged atten­dees to be con­sis­tently vig­i­lant in their advo­cacy efforts; to con­tinue to beat

down the doors of par­lia­men­tar­i­ans with the mes­sage that “cul­ture is impor­tant”, even when

it seems this mes­sage is not hav­ing the desired impact. She indi­cated that advo­cacy groups

play an essen­tial role in edu­cat­ing MPs as to what ques­tions need to be asked and what issues

need to be addressed, and they can have enor­mous influ­ence in the House of Com­mons in

shap­ing the debate on a piece of leg­is­la­tion. “Some things stick, and talk­ing to MPs, getting

infor­ma­tion to MPs, is crit­i­cal to mov­ing the arts agenda for­ward in Ottawa,” she insisted.

 

This point was echoed by Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment of all stripes dur­ing an after­noon panel

dis­cus­sion. Ed Broad­bent  (NDP, Ottawa-Centre, ON), Sar­mite Bulte (Lib­eral Party,

Parkdale-High Park , ON), Maka Kotto (Bloc Québé­cois, Saint-Lambert, PQ), and Bev Oda

(CPC, Durham, ON), spent over an hour delib­er­at­ing the mer­its of var­i­ous advo­cacy strategies

before open­ing the floor to ques­tions from the audi­ence. Out of this dis­cus­sion emerged a

con­sen­sus shared by all four on the impor­tance of deliv­er­ing clear mes­sages to key MPs and

Stand­ing Com­mit­tee mem­bers, in order to be suc­cess­ful in advo­cacy ini­tia­tives. Of special

sig­nif­i­cance was the gen­eral agree­ment among party rep­re­sen­ta­tives about the need for a

fed­eral cul­tural pol­icy; a need which CCA has been work­ing to address for years. On this

topic, the MPs stated:

•     “If ever there was a time… we needed to address the aspect of a national cultural

pol­icy, it is now.  It really is now. And it’s seri­ous… The State has a lot of power

still in this glob­al­ized world and it should be used much more con­struc­tively and

imag­i­na­tively in our coun­try in terms of shap­ing a new cul­tural policy…and

there  should be the broad­est par­tic­i­pa­tion across the coun­try with a time-limited

agenda for devel­op­ment,  ”  Ed Broadbent.

•     “I think the Min­is­ter has clearly indi­cated that she wants to estab­lish a national cultural

pol­icy.  That’s some­thing that she did when she was the min­is­ter in Que­bec, she was

respon­si­ble for the Que­bec cul­tural pol­icy, so I would say…there is that polit­i­cal will

indeed…I (also) think it is impor­tant to con­tinue to relationship-build with politicians

and also with the depart­ment (of Cana­dian Heritage)…The arts are truly posi­tioned right

now to become a huge pri­or­ity on the national land­scape and I think we do so with a new

part­ner, the Fed­er­a­tion of Cana­dian Munic­i­pal­i­ties,” Sar­mite Bulte.

•     “I think that the absence of a cul­tural pol­icy comes back to what I was say­ing earlier,

it’s because we con­sider cul­ture as the fifth wheel of the cart.  It is because of the absence

of this pol­icy that the United States, through Hol­ly­wood enter­tain­ment, has been able to

take such a huge share of the Cana­dian market…I think it is nec­es­sary – we need this type of policy.

We have to have this pol­icy but we also have to have vision first.  Where is this vision?  I think this

vision is with you.  You have this vision,” Maka Kotto.

•     “We (the mem­bers of the Her­itage com­mit­tee) would love to see an over-arching cul­tural pol­icy come

for­ward.  I think we, as a coun­try, have to reaf­firm our com­mit­ment to the arts and cul­ture, and that

can be done with an over-arching, a clear artic­u­la­tion, of the posi­tion on cul­ture in this coun­try, and

the role it plays… You can have nice state­ments on a cul­tural pol­icy but we also have to ensure that

there’s sta­bil­ity.  And if we believe that cul­ture is impor­tant to this coun­try, we should do more than

just say­ing that we sup­port you on an annual basis,” Bev Oda.

These com­ments pro­vide a spring­board for CCA’s next National Pol­icy Con­fer­ence, sched­uled to take

place Novem­ber 25–26, 2005, in Toronto (venue to be announced), which will address the need for a

Fed­eral Cul­tural Policy.

Elab­o­rat­ing on the Chalmers Con­fer­ence theme of advo­cacy and the par­lia­men­tary process at a more

gen­eral level, pre­sen­ta­tions were made by con­sul­tant Glen Milne, and Deputy Prin­ci­pal Clerk of the

Com­mit­tees Direc­torate for the House of Com­mons Tran­quillo Mar­rocco.  Bas­ing his pre­sen­ta­tion on his

book Mak­ing Pol­icy: A Guide to the Fed­eral Government’s Pol­icy Process, Milne out­lined the intricacies

of the policy-making process, par­tic­u­larly in the con­text of today’s minor­ity gov­ern­ment, and he pro­vided del­e­gates with a sum­mary of guide­lines for gain­ing access to this milieu.  Marrocco’s pre­sen­ta­tion was even more focused, with par­tic­u­lar atten­tion paid to the Par­lia­men­tary com­mit­tees process.  Using the newly restruc­tured par­lia­men­tary web­site as a guide, he elab­o­rated on the tools and ser­vices avail­able to assist orga­ni­za­tions in prepar­ing sub­mis­sions and presentations.

 

Finally, the Young Man­agers Panel, mod­er­ated by CCA’s own young man­ager – Interim Pol­icy Advisor

James Mis­sen – brought clo­sure to the day with a glimpse into the pro­fes­sional lives of the sector’s future lead­ers – a recur­ring theme in past Chalmers Con­fer­ences and the sub­ject of CCA’s Cre­ative Man­age­ment project.  Kris­t­ian Clarke, (CARFAC Ontario), Shan­non Litzen­berger, (Cana­dian Dance Assem­bly), Car­ole Myre (Fran­coscénie) and Joanne Rycaj Guillemette, (Ottawa Art Gallery), dis­cussed work/life bal­ance and the advo­cacy issues that res­onate with them.  Of par­tic­u­lar note for exec­u­tives in atten­dance for this panel was the role men­tor­ship has played in fos­ter­ing the man­age­ment capac­ity of this up-and com­ing gen­er­a­tion.  The value of coun­sel from more senior cul­tural man­agers was under­scored by the var­i­ous men­tor­ship mod­els brought to the table by these five individuals.

 

In reflect­ing on the suc­cess of this year’s Chalmers Con­fer­ence, CCA National Direc­tor Jean Malavoy

indi­cated that, as in the past, CCA will build on the issues that emerged from this year’s con­fer­ence and

use this infor­ma­tion to frame the debate for the National Pol­icy Con­fer­ence in Novem­ber. “It is clear that there is sup­port at the fed­eral level for a much-needed Fed­eral Cul­tural Pol­icy,” stated Malavoy.  “With the tools and tips brought forth today for improved advo­cacy, the arts and cul­ture sec­tor is in an excel­lent posi­tion to come together in Novem­ber and dis­cuss strate­gies for mak­ing this need a pol­icy reality.”

A full report on the 2005 Chalmers Con­fer­ence will be avail­able at the begin­ning of May at www.ccarts.ca

ANNOUNCEMENTS

In Appre­ci­a­tion of Canada’s Volunteers

The week of April 17–23 marks National Vol­un­teer Week  – a time set aside annu­ally to hon­our Canada’s

6.5 mil­lion vol­un­teers.  As board mem­bers, project man­agers, sports coaches, care-givers, peer mentors

and so much more, vol­un­teers self­lessly ded­i­cate their time and energy to the ser­vice of oth­ers.  In the

spirit of this com­mit­ment, Vol­un­teer Canada has cho­sen this year’s National Vol­un­teer Week theme to be “Vol­un­teers Grow Com­mu­nity”.  The Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts would like to take this

oppor­tu­nity to acknowl­edge and thank all Cana­dian vol­un­teers and, in par­tic­u­lar, those vol­un­teers who

con­tribute to Canada’s vibrant arts and cul­ture com­mu­nity.   Spe­cial thanks to our own

“com­mu­nity grow­ers” – the six­teen mem­bers of the CCA Board, under whose direc­tion the CCA

is able to con­tinue advo­cat­ing on behalf of the Cana­dian cul­tural sector.

Awards Dead­line

Note: April 30th is the dead­line to nom­i­nate indi­vid­u­als for CCA’s Diplôme d’honneur and Keith

Kelly Award for Cul­tural Lead­er­ship – both to be pre­sented at the National Pol­icy Con­fer­ence in

Novem­ber.  Nom­i­na­tion forms and details on these awards, includ­ing past recip­i­ents, are

avail­able on CCA’s web­site at www.ccarts.ca.  Send in your nom­i­na­tions asap!