CCA Bul­letin 46/06

Novem­ber 2, 2006

Just the Facts

The Board of Gov­er­nors of the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA) recently held meet­ings on Octo­ber 20 & 21 2006 at the Cana­dian Cen­tre for Archi­tec­ture in Mon­tréal. The CCA Board of Gov­er­nors is con­tin­u­ing its work to firmly restore the focus of the CCA on cul­tural pol­icy analy­sis and devel­op­ment, and to ensure that the gov­er­nance model of the orga­ni­za­tion facil­i­tates this renewed objective.

The new mis­sion state­ment of the CCA approved by the Board, is:

“The Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA) is the national forum for the arts and cul­tural com­mu­nity in Canada . It pro­vides research, analy­sis and con­sul­ta­tions on pub­lic poli­cies affect­ing the arts and the Cana­dian cul­tural insti­tu­tions and indus­tries. The CCA fos­ters informed pub­lic debate on pol­icy issues and seeks to advance the cul­tural rights of Cana­di­ans .”

The Board adopted this mis­sion state­ment upon the rec­om­men­da­tion of a gov­er­nance sub-committee of the Board in order to bet­ter reflect the renewed rela­tion­ship of the CCA with the larger sec­tor it serves and rep­re­sents. The state­ment rec­og­nizes the matu­rity of the arts and cul­ture sec­tor today, and the crit­i­cal role of arts ser­vice orga­ni­za­tions in rep­re­sent­ing the dis­ci­pline spe­cific needs and real­i­ties of their own members.

In addi­tion to dis­cus­sions on our mis­sion state­ment and gov­er­nance, the Board also adopted rules of engage­ment for the next fed­eral elec­tion cam­paign, a new strat­egy on tax­a­tion and fis­cal pol­icy, as well as a strat­egy for the CCA’s role in the next phase of pos­si­ble revi­sions to the Copy­right Act .

Two CCA Board sub-committees, one on gov­er­nance issues and the other on mem­ber­ship, also tabled interim reports and rec­om­men­da­tions for the con­sid­er­a­tion of their col­leagues on the full CCA Board. In both instances the sub-committees were instructed to re-group and con­tinue their impor­tant dis­cus­sions in order for their revised rec­om­men­da­tions to be con­sid­ered for approval at the next CCA Board meet­ing in Feb­ru­ary 2007.

The CCA Board also con­firmed the appoint­ment of Alain Pineau as per­ma­nent National Direc­tor of the orga­ni­za­tion. The Board cited the pas­sion and lead­er­ship that Alain has brought to the posi­tion since Novem­ber 2005 as two of the many attrib­utes that have earned him the trust and respect of the Board and the CCA mem­ber­ship over the past year.

Tell Me More.

In approv­ing the strat­egy out­lin­ing the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts’ involve­ment in the next phase of copy­right revi­sions, the Board of Gov­er­nors sig­naled that the CCA will be actively con­sult­ing the copy­right col­lec­tives and cre­ators’ orga­ni­za­tions in this process. The Board endorsed the tra­di­tional posi­tion of the CCA, which pro­motes the “droit d’auteur” view of copy­right, while sup­port­ing the prin­ci­ple of col­lec­tive rights man­age­ment as the fairest and eas­i­est form of access by copy­right users and licensees.

The Board also approved rules of engage­ment for the CCA in the next fed­eral elec­tion, when­ever it may occur. The Board affirms the non-partisan nature of the CCA and the organization’s role in pro­vid­ing fair and bal­anced infor­ma­tion to the arts and cul­ture sec­tor regard­ing par­ties’ elec­tion plat­forms and their posi­tions on pub­lic pol­icy affect­ing the Cana­dian arts and cul­ture sec­tor. The CCA will not usurp the rights of each Cana­dian to make their choice based on their own judg­ment, though we will endeav­our as always to keep peo­ple fully informed.

The Board also endorsed some research strate­gies deal­ing with the dif­fer­ence between lob­by­ing and advo­cacy, the role of civil soci­ety orga­ni­za­tions in the pub­lic pol­icy dis­course, and a study on the use of direct fund­ing and tax expen­di­tures by gov­ern­ments in sup­port of com­mon good objec­tives. The ini­tial find­ings of this research will be pre­sented to the Board when they next meet in Feb­ru­ary 2007.

The Board was also pre­sented with an inven­tory of the work that the CCA has under­taken since March 2006. That list is on our web­site for your information.

Tell Me Even MORE.

Since 2005, the Board of Gov­er­nors of the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts has invested con­sid­er­able energy and work in rebuild­ing the capac­ity of the orga­ni­za­tion with respect to cul­tural pol­icy devel­op­ment and analy­sis. Last year the Board cre­ated an expanded Pol­icy and Advo­cacy Com­mit­tee to ensure that it has access to a wide range of views within the arts and cul­ture sec­tor to inform their work.

The CCA’s Pol­icy and Advo­cacy Com­mit­tee is chaired by Karl Siegler, Vice-President of the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts, and is com­prised of other CCA board mem­bers and members-at-large, including:

• Lucy White, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Pro­fes­sional Asso­ci­a­tion of Cana­dian The­atres (PACT);
• Anne-Marie Desroches, Union des Artistes (UDA);
• Andrew David Ter­ris, Arts Nova Cul­tural Research and Con­sult­ing, past CCA board mem­ber and interim National Director;
• Sheila Roberts, Saskatchewan arts activist and CCA Board member;
• Deb­o­rah Wind­sor, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Writ­ers’ Union of Canada (TWUC);
• Robert Spick­ler (ex-officio), cur­rent Pres­i­dent of the CCA.

The work of the Com­mit­tee is also facil­i­tated by the involve­ment of the Secretariat’s pol­icy team: Alain Pineau, National Direc­tor, Keith Kelly, Cul­tural Pol­icy Con­sul­tant, and James Mis­sen, Cul­tural Pol­icy Advisor.

This Com­mit­tee vets pol­icy and advo­cacy issues and strate­gies before they are pre­sented to the full CCA Board of Gov­er­nors as rec­om­men­da­tions for their approval. The CCA encour­ages its mem­bers and sup­port­ers to for­ward any issues or views related to pol­icy and advo­cacy, in an ongo­ing basis, to the atten­tion of CCA National Direc­tor Alain Pineau (alain.pineau@ccarts.ca).

Addi­tion­ally, the CCA reminds its mem­bers that our new com­mu­ni­ca­tions tool and elec­tronic mag­a­zine CCA’s @gora has been online since August. It is an inter­ac­tive space, thus one can leave com­ments on CCA’s short, medium, and long-term Pol­icy and Advo­cacy pri­or­i­ties.

Please visit CCA’s @gora often as we are always adding new con­tent, includ­ing news of our 47th Annual Awards Gala held on Sep­tem­ber 15 in Toronto . The site now fea­tures some won­der­ful pho­tos and sto­ries from the event, includ­ing the texts from the won­der­ful accep­tance speeches by our esteemed 2006 CCA award win­ners, Bluma Appel and Pat Durr.

What Can I Do?

The CCA is always seek­ing new mem­bers and sup­port­ers to enable us to under­take the wide range of research and pol­icy devel­op­ment on poli­cies that have an impact on the arts and cul­tural sec­tor. If you are already a mem­ber, we encour­age you to renew your mem­ber­ship, to make a dona­tion and to encour­age oth­ers to become mem­bers. The broader the base of the CCA, the more effec­tive we can be in putting your con­cerns and inter­ests for­ward. Again, we also encour­age you to be in com­mu­ni­ca­tions with the CCA by con­tact­ing info@ccarts.ca and by our two web­sites. Let us know how we are doing and how we can serve you better!