FROM THE DESK of Alain Pineau: MARCH 2006 CONFERENCE REMINDER

CCA Bul­letin 4 /06

Jan­u­ary 19, 2006 – If you have been fol­low­ing the fed­eral elec­tion and pub­lic opin­ion polls as intently as the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA), you will doubtlessly feel the winds of change pick­ing up.

At the moment it appears that on Jan­u­ary 23 2006 the polit­i­cal land­scape in this coun­try will be altered when Cana­di­ans go to the polls to elect a new fed­eral gov­ern­ment.  Every Cana­dian 18 and older has a right to have their say at the polling booth, but what about Jan­u­ary 24 2006 and beyond?

For those of us work­ing in the arts and cul­tural sec­tor, the prospect of change brings with it a great deal of uncer­tainty. Will a new gov­ern­ment hon­our the com­mit­ment to increase the bud­get of the Canada Coun­cil?  Will it con­tinue with changes to the Copy­right Act?  How will it make key appoint­ments, such as the Direc­tor of the Canada Coun­cil for the Arts?  How will it set an agenda for the arts and cul­tural indus­tries for the next Parliament?

CCA’s national pol­icy con­fer­ence and (for arts orga­ni­za­tions only) atten­dant Chalmers Conference,gives you a chance to add your views and pri­or­i­ties to those of your col­leagues on these and other mat­ters of impor­tance to artists, cre­ators and arts pro­fes­sion­als. CCA has already alerted theDe­part­ment it would like the next Min­is­ter of Cana­dian Her­itage to attend.

(CCA mem­ber orga­ni­za­tions should have received a sep­a­rate notice about the Chalmers Conference;for more infor­ma­tion on how this year’s Chalmers event links with the national pol­icy conference,please con­tact the CCA secretariat.)

The chance is not to be missed to have your voice heard in Ottawa and is an excel­len­top­por­tu­nity to set the course of the new gov­ern­ment in a direc­tion that will serve the inter­ests ofthe arts, her­itage and cul­tural indus­try communities. Reserve your space today, encour­age your col­leagues to do as well – the CCA will deliver yourmes­sages to the Hill for the dura­tion of the next Par­lia­ment.  We will con­tinue to defend and pro­motepoli­cies and leg­is­la­tion that sup­port the con­tin­ued growth and diver­sity of artis­tic expres­sion inCanada.  Be a part of this oppor­tu­nity to direct the winds of change. You will find attached an upda­teof the con­tent of the con­fer­ence; reg­is­tra­tion forms can be down­loaded at www.ccarts.ca.  The num­berof spaces is lim­ited, so reg­is­ter now!

I look for­ward to meet­ing all of you at this impor­tant event for all of us.