From the traveling desk of Alain Pineau — January 10, 2012
VICTORIA — Well, it’s on! After weeks of preparation, my cross-country consultation tour started yesterday in British Columbia where I am spending the week. I must confess that after the snow and cold we’ve had in Ottawa these past weeks, it is agreeably exotic to forego boots and scarf: it’s a pleasant 8° C in Victoria and the rain seems pleasantly spring-like to someone from the Eastern part of the country.
Why this pan-Canadian tour which will take me to 14 cities between now and February 18? First and foremost to validate with cultural communities from across our vast nation the strategic pillars and initiatives developed over the past six months to reinvent the business model of the CCA and make it financially self-supporting by 2014–15. This decision was taken enthusiastically by our Board of Governors and embraced by staff at the Secretariat: it stems from the expected decision by the government to put an end to 45 years of annual federal funding for the Conference. I say expected since we have not yet been officially informed, but it does seem to be a done deal. This is why, at the prompting of Heritage officials, we applied for transition funding last September, as it quickly became clear that such support would be absolutely essential to the development of a strategic plan leading to self-sufficiency. We are reasonably confident that we will receive this funding, but it is unlikely that we will know for sure until the March federal budget. Of course, this does not prevent us from working full-tilt to ensure that the CCA remains relevant to its members after 67 years and to rally as many supporters as possible.
So, it is full of enthusiasm that I started on this winter trek which will take me from the softer climes of Victoria to the unpredictable weather of Halifax and St John’s, Newfoundland. Enthusiasm and, I must admit, a certain queasiness, as criss-crossing our great country in winter time is to take a gamble even our politicians try to avoid. General elections are quite rarely held at this time of year!
Consultations have started on a positive note. Eighteen people gathered yesterday at the Belfry Theatre in Victoria at the invitation of General Manager, Ivan Habel, who sits on the CCA Board since last June and whom I thank for his precious help in organizing my visit here. I made a 30-minute presentation based on the two-page document Shaping Canada’s vibrant future for arts and culture (to be made available on-line shortly). This text is the result of a CCA strategic session last October and of consultations held in Montréal, Toronto and Ottawa in November and December. Following my presentation, we had an open discussion on the various services put forward for consideration by participants, most of whom did not know much about the CCA prior to the meeting. What drove home the value of the CCA as a unique tool for the cultural sector was the work done recently on the copyright file and the issue of charitable status. I noted a clear interest in the idea of creating links with regional affiliates, something which would allow the CCA to have a truly national view of policy issues debated in Ottawa. There was also interest in sharing information as to what is happening in other provinces. All in all, I could not have hoped for a better warming up session!
This morning, I meet with the Executive Director of the BC Arts Council, Ms.Gillian Wood. BCAC is the only Arts Council outside of Ontario to have maintained its support of the Canadian Conference of the Arts and this has a very important symbolic value for us. It is my hope that we can extend the same sort of relationship in one form or another with other existing provincial councils.
I leave for Vancouver in a few hours where a similar consultation meeting has been organized by our partners at the Vancouver Arts and Culture Alliance. I will also be giving a workshop on Revenue Canada’s consultation on proposed guidelines on registration as charities of arts organisations. This workshop, prepared at the invitation of our friend lawyer Martha Rans, will be offered to other cities I visit during my tour of the country.
I will be back with another blog on Friday, once my visit to Vancouver is completed. You can also follow me via Twitter.