CCA Urges Government to Pass the Budget Before an Election

See below for CCA’s open let­ter sub­mit­ted to Cana­dian polit­i­cal lead­ers, May 6th2005.

Ottawa, May 6, 2005
Whether a fed­eral elec­tion will begin in a mat­ter of a few weeks or thirty days after the planned
con­clu­sion of Jus­tice Gomery’s inquiry later this year, it is clear that Cana­di­ans will head back to
the polls some­time in the next eight months. What is less clear though, at this point, is the future
sus­tain­abil­ity of Canada’s arts, cul­ture, and her­itage sec­tor.
When the 2005 Fed­eral Bud­get was unveiled on Feb­ru­ary 23, the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the
Arts (CCA) and its hun­dreds of mem­ber orga­ni­za­tions were pleased to learn of the
announce­ment of sev­eral key fund­ing ini­tia­tives for the arts, cul­ture, and her­itage sec­tor, namely
the sub­stan­tial exten­sion of the “Tomor­row Starts Today” (TST) pro­gram, to the tune of $860
mil­lion over five years. Unfor­tu­nately, in the cur­rent polit­i­cal envi­ron­ment in Ottawa, and with the
increas­ing like­li­hood of an early fed­eral elec­tion call, the future of this com­mit­ment is highly
uncer­tain.
CCA National Direc­tor Jean Malavoy says, “This fund­ing enve­lope serves as the foun­da­tion on
which a mul­ti­tude of arts and cul­tural ini­tia­tives, which ben­e­fit all Cana­di­ans, can be built upon
and sus­tained. The bud­get must pass.”

CCA has been told that TST would be in place for the cur­rent fis­cal year of 2005-06, since it was
a pre-budget com­mit­ment announced in late 2004. If the bud­get does not pass before the writ
drops, Gov­er­nor General’s war­rants would be issued in order to keep the wheels of gov­ern­ment
turn­ing until an elec­tion is over. How­ever, what hangs in the bal­ance then are a vari­ety of
pro­grams, includ­ing cul­tural fund­ing for the Depart­ment of For­eign Affairs and Inter­na­tional Trade
(DFAIT), the trans­fer of the gas tax to the cities (which could poten­tially ben­e­fit var­i­ous munic­i­pal
arts and cul­ture pro­grams), as well as the future of TST beyond March 2006.
On May 6, the CCA sent an “open let­ter” to all the major polit­i­cal party lead­ers request­ing
that the feds work together to ensure that key aspects of the bud­get, such as TST, are
passed in the com­ing weeks.
CCA has also endorsed the emerg­ing “Peo­ple Before Pol­i­tics” cam­paign. Infor­ma­tion about this
ini­tia­tive can be found at www.peoplebeforepolitics.ca. CCA is proud to join other civil soci­ety
lead­er­ship orga­ni­za­tions with the mes­sage that, “Par­lia­ment has work to do. Impor­tant action
on the envi­ron­ment, equal­ity, child­care, abo­rig­i­nal issues, social hous­ing, munic­i­pal
infra­struc­ture, immi­gra­tion and many other vital issues is at risk. A pre­ma­ture elec­tion
could end this Par­lia­ment just before key deci­sions are made. We believe that peo­ple
should be put before pol­i­tics.”
Open let­ter sent by the CCA May 6th, 2005, to Cana­dian polit­i­cal lead­ers
Dear Rt. Hon. Paul Mar­tin, Hon. Stephen Harper, Gilles Duceppe, and Hon. Jack Lay­ton
On Feb­ru­ary 23rd, the 2005 Fed­eral Bud­get announced a his­toric fund­ing com­mit­ment for
Canada’s arts, cul­ture, and her­itage sec­tor, in the form of the pro­posed renewal of the “Tomor­row
Starts Today” (TST) pro­gram through to March 2010.
The renewal of TST is an issue the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA), together with its
hun­dreds of arts, cul­ture, and her­itage mem­ber orga­ni­za­tions from all across this coun­try, has
been com­mit­ted to for many years now. Those in the sec­tor worked hard to impress upon their
MPs, Min­is­ters, and other deci­sion mak­ers, the pro­found impor­tance of the TST pro­gram as the
foun­da­tion on which many cul­tural ini­tia­tives, which ben­e­fit all Cana­di­ans, their sense of iden­tity
and their qual­ity of life, can be built upon and sus­tained.
The TST invest­ment is extremely sig­nif­i­cant for the sec­tor in a num­ber of ways, includ­ing:
pro­mot­ing sus­tain­abil­ity and capac­ity build­ing; adding much needed fund­ing to exist­ing pro­grams,
such as those that assist Canada’s national train­ing insti­tu­tions, the book pub­lish­ing indus­try, and
the Canada Music Fund; pro­vid­ing monies for the Arts Pre­sen­ta­tion Canada pro­gram, which
pro­motes access to and par­tic­i­pa­tion in Canada’s cul­tural life and nur­tures venues for artists in
dif­fer­ent regions and tra­di­tions; funds to allow arts venues to update their facil­i­ties with new
tech­nol­ogy; and pro­mo­tion of the Trade Routes pro­gram for cul­tural exports. TST fund­ing has
also per­mit­ted the devel­op­ment of new pro­grams, such as Cul­tural Cap­i­tals of Canada, an
incen­tive for munic­i­pal­i­ties to invest in cul­ture in their com­mu­ni­ties and to develop munic­i­pal
cul­tural poli­cies. Fur­ther­more, TST pro­vides much needed increases in fund­ing to key national
cul­tural agen­cies and insti­tu­tions, includ­ing the Canada Coun­cil for the Arts and the Cana­dian
Broad­cast­ing Cor­po­ra­tion.
As you might under­stand, the CCA is dis­tressed that this fund­ing com­mit­ment, which would
pos­i­tively impact so many Cana­di­ans, could be jeop­ar­dized by an early fed­eral elec­tion call. CCA
appeals to the four of you, as the lead­ers of Canada’s major polit­i­cal par­ties, to work together to
ensure that key aspects of the fed­eral bud­get, such as TST, are passed in the com­ing weeks.
CCA also wants to respect­fully remind you that in the past months, all fed­eral par­ties have
pub­licly endorsed the need for, and the impor­tance of, sta­ble, multi-year fund­ing for Canada’s
arts, cul­ture, and her­itage sec­tor.
The CCA sup­ports the “Peo­ple Before Pol­i­tics” (www.peoplebeforepolitics.ca) cam­paign and asks
you to work col­lab­o­ra­tively to ensure that the fed­eral bud­get that our mem­bers and mem­ber
orga­ni­za­tions want, that Cana­di­ans want, is passed before another elec­tion. The cur­rent
minor­ity Par­lia­ment, in which you all play inte­gral roles, still has much work to do and CCA is
eager for you to carry out your duties and to sup­port your efforts.
Sin­cerely,
Jean Malavoy
National Direc­tor, Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts
c.c. Hon. Ralph Goodale, Min­is­ter of Finance
Hon. Liza Frulla, Min­is­ter of Cana­dian Her­itage and Sta­tus of Women
Hon. Sar­mite Bulte, Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary to the Min­is­ter of Cana­dian Her­itage
Mar­lene Cat­ter­all, Chair, Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Cana­dian Her­itage
Bev Oda, Con­ser­v­a­tive Critic, Cana­dian Her­itage
Maka Kotto, Bloc Que­be­cois Critic, Cana­dian Her­itage
Char­lie Angus, New Demo­c­ra­tic Party Critic, Cana­dian Her­itage
The Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts is Canada’s national forum for the arts and cul­tural
com­mu­nity. The CCA is a leader in the defence of artists’ rights, an author­ity on pub­lic pol­icy in
arts and cul­ture, and a cat­a­lyst for debate and action within the sector.