FROM THE DESK of Alain Pineau:CCA to embark on comprehensive consultative process with members and arts and cultural sector

Ottawa, Novem­ber 18, 2005 – Within the first two weeks of my man­date as the new National Direc­tor of the
Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts we have seen the unveil­ing of the Eco­nomic Update by the Min­is­ter of Finance,
and the spec­tre of a fed­eral elec­tion is now loom­ing in the not-too-distant future. Once the writ drops, leg­is­la­tion
to revise the Copy­right Act (Bill C-60) and the Not-For-Profit Cor­po­ra­tions Act (Bill C-21) will die on the Order
Paper, plus the work of the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Cana­dian Her­itage on its review of fed­eral fea­ture film
pol­icy, and the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on For­eign Affairs and Inter­na­tional Trade’s con­sul­ta­tions on Canada’s new
inter­na­tional pol­icy state­ment will grind to a halt.
It is against this back­drop that the CCA is embark­ing on a com­pre­hen­sive con­sul­ta­tive process with its mem­bers
and the larger arts and cul­tural sec­tor, to chart a course for our advo­cacy efforts with the next gov­ern­ment and
beyond. As National Direc­tor, I per­son­ally encour­age you to be an active part of this impor­tant process.
On the after­noon of March 2 2006, the CCA will con­vene the Chalmers Con­fer­ence for arts ser­vice orga­ni­za­tions
to be fol­lowed on March 3 and 4 2006 by a national pol­icy con­fer­ence open to indi­vid­ual artists, arts pro­fes­sion­als
and arts orga­ni­za­tions, stu­dents, and decision-makers; a fur­ther Chalmers Con­fer­ence meet­ing will con­clude the
con­fer­ence on the after­noon of March 4. Enti­tled “Map­ping Canada’s Cul­tural Pol­icy: Where Do We Go From
Here?” these dis­cus­sions will take place at the newly-renovated Sher­a­ton Ottawa Hotel. The con­fer­ences will be
imme­di­ately fol­lowed by a meet­ing of the Board of Gov­er­nors of the CCA, which will then develop an action
plan based on the ideas exchanged over the course of our three days together in Ottawa.
It is not an over­state­ment to say that this is the most inten­sive con­sul­ta­tion and dis­cus­sion on fed­eral cul­tural
pol­icy that the CCA has under­taken for many years. I hope that through this process we can col­lec­tively iden­tify
issues that remain impor­tant for the arts and cul­tural sec­tor, as well as other devel­op­ments that are lurk­ing off on
the hori­zon. Work­ing together, we can estab­lish a set of attain­able objec­tives that will guide the work of the CCA
and other cul­tural orga­ni­za­tions in the years to come.
CCA con­sid­ers the March 2006 event the first step in a two part process, cul­mi­nat­ing in a major pan-sectorial
con­fer­ence the fol­low­ing year (2007) where we will focus on those issues, both new and old, iden­ti­fied at the
March 2006 event. In the mean­time, the Sec­re­tariat of the CCA will invest a great deal of time and energy to
ensure the issues our mem­ber­ship deems most impor­tant are given the atten­tion they deserve both dur­ing the
elec­tion and with the result­ing gov­ern­ment. In 2007, we will be ready to engage in an informed and for­ward­look­ing
process to carry us for­ward as an orga­ni­za­tion and as a sec­tor.
Col­lec­tively, we have a great oppor­tu­nity to influ­ence the pri­or­i­ties of a newly-elected fed­eral gov­ern­ment in the
cul­tural area. The CCA is deter­mined to lead, to take advan­tage of the shift­ing polit­i­cal land­scape, and to assert
with clar­ity and tenac­ity the aspi­ra­tions of Cana­dian artists, cre­ators, pro­duc­ers and arts pro­fes­sion­als.
I urge you and your col­leagues to be with us in Ottawa from March 3–4, 2006 for the national pol­icy con­fer­ence,
which will be brack­eted by a Chalmers Con­fer­ence on the after­noon of March 2, 2006 and on the after­noon of
March 4, 2006. Your expe­ri­ence, insight and pas­sion are cen­tral to the suc­cess of these events!
You will find attached a broad out­line of the pro­gram for the three days. Fur­ther details about these events will
be avail­able on our web­site by Decem­ber 1.