CCA Bul­letin 36/08

Ottawa, Mon­day, Sep­tem­ber 15, 2008

In order to assist all those who are pre­oc­cu­pied with the place arts and cul­ture occupy in the cur­rent elec­toral cam­paign, the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA) has iden­ti­fied seven broad areas of prime impor­tance for artists, cre­ators, cul­tural insti­tu­tions and indus­tries. The CCA has devel­oped a set of ques­tions for each issue: these ques­tions can be asked to all can­di­dates when they come knock­ing at the door or par­tic­i­pate in an all party debate.

This first sec­tion we are issu­ing today pro­poses ques­tions to ask of all local can­di­dates in your rid­ing. They touch on three impor­tant cur­rent issues for the arts and cul­ture sec­tor in Canada. Top­ics raised in this sec­tion ques­tion the role of the fed­eral gov­ern­ment in cul­tural fund­ing and pol­icy, the role of cul­ture and arts in inter­na­tional diplo­macy, and the growth of Canada’s cre­ative econ­omy.  Each set of sug­gested ques­tions is pre­ceded by a short back­grounder on the issue. We encour­age you to dis­sem­i­nate as much as pos­si­ble the replies you may get, either in writ­ing or in a pub­lic forum.

Issue: Fed­eral fund­ing of the arts and cul­ture sector

Back­ground:

As long as cul­ture is nowhere to be found in the Cana­dian con­sti­tu­tion, it has always been an area of shared juris­dic­tion between Fed­eral and Provin­cial gov­ern­ments. In 2007–2008, the Fed­eral gov­ern­ment has ded­i­cated more than $ 3.3 bil­lion to the var­i­ous activ­i­ties of the cul­tural sec­tor, includ­ing the bud­get of the Depart­ment of Cana­dian Her­itage, the CBC, the Canada Coun­cil for the Arts and other national arts and cul­ture institutions.

Accord­ing to Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts’ Annual Fed­eral Bud­get Analy­sis, the over­all spend­ing on arts and cul­ture has been fairly sta­ble over the past three years. How­ever, there have been mate­r­ial real­lo­ca­tions of money within the over­all part of the fed­eral bud­get ded­i­cated to arts and cul­ture. The Canada Coun­cil has received $ 50 mil­lion one-time increases to its bud­get and, this year, a $30 M recur­rent increase to its base bud­get. $100 M has been invested by the gov­ern­ment in much needed cul­tural infra­struc­tures (at the National Arts Cen­tre  and at national muse­ums). An impor­tant invest­ment has been promised for the first national museum to be built and main­tained out­side of the national cap­i­tal region (the Cana­dian Museum of Human rights, in Win­nipeg). Most cul­tural agen­cies (the CBC, Tele­film, the Cana­dian Tele­vi­sion Fund, the National Film Board, etc.) have pretty much been main­tained at the sta­tus quo level. A new annual bud­get of $ 8 mil­lion has been allo­cated to the sup­port local fes­ti­vals of all kinds and the Arts Pre­sen­ta­tion Pro­gram of the Depart­ment of Her­itage has been increased by $ 7 mil­lion a year.

On the other side of the ledger, no progress has been made toward a new fed­eral museum pol­icy and its accom­pa­ny­ing increased bud­get to help pre­serve our com­mon her­itage, while sig­nif­i­cant cuts have been made to the museum com­mu­nity by cut­ting the Museum Assis­tance Pro­gram ($4.6M) and putting an end to the Exhi­bi­tion Trans­porta­tion Ser­vices. The National Por­trait Gallery project has been put for auc­tion to nine Cana­dian cities and to the pri­vate sec­tor. At For­eign Affairs and Inter­na­tional Trade, the Pro­mArt Pro­gram, first reduced by  $5,9 mil­lion in 2006, will be com­pletely abol­ished at the end of the cur­rent fis­cal year ($4.7M). TradeR­outes, another pro­gram pro­mot­ing our cul­ture abroad, has been axed ($9 mil­lion). The E-Culture pro­gramme, includ­ing the Cana­dian Cul­tural Obser­va­tory, has been abol­ished ($4.4 mil­lion) and bud­gets for cul­tural sta­tis­tics at Sta­tis­tics Canada have been con­sid­er­ably reduced. Other cuts which have emerged over the past month add another $ 60,5 mil­lion (includ­ing Pro­mArt and TradeR­outes) to the total reduc­tions to pro­gram and ser­vices for the arts and cul­ture sec­tor (i.e. $ 72 mil­lion so far). The lat­est cuts affect mainly the dis­sem­i­na­tion of Cana­dian cul­ture abroad, the train­ing of a cre­ative work­force to posi­tion Canada inter­na­tion­ally, and the pro­duc­tion, dis­tri­b­u­tion and preser­va­tion of New Media content.

Sug­gested questions

• Does your Party sup­port the con­cept that cul­ture is a shared juris­dic­tion between Provin­cial and Fed­eral gov­ern­ments? If so, does your Party acknowl­edge that the fed­eral gov­ern­ment has a respon­si­bil­ity to invest in art and cul­ture in Canada as it does for other sec­tors of national activity?

• Does your Party agree that the fed­eral gov­ern­ment has a respon­si­bil­ity to help develop inter­na­tional mar­kets for our artists, cre­ators, cul­tural insti­tu­tions and cul­tural indus­tries as it does for other sec­tors of the economy?

• Will your Party invest more in the pro­duc­tion of art and cul­ture, includ­ing in the audio-visual sec­tor, through increased bud­gets for agen­cies in the Cana­dian Her­itage port­fo­lio and through the adop­tion of appro­pri­ate reg­u­la­tion of the pri­vate sec­tor? Please be spe­cific about your plans.

• Does your party have any plan to replace some of the pro­grams recently cut? Which ones will you replace, why and how?

Issue: Pro­mot­ing Cana­dian Cul­ture on the Inter­na­tional Stage

Back­ground

From 1995 to 2005, the pro­mo­tion and the pro­mo­tion of Cana­dian val­ues and cul­ture abroad has been the so-called third pil­lar of Cana­dian for­eign pol­icy. Many artists, cre­ators and aca­d­e­mics have been sent around the world as ambas­sadors and sym­bol of excel­lence of our country.

In 2006, a first cut was made to pub­lic diplo­macy pro­grams under which Cana­dian artists, cre­ators and intel­lec­tu­als were sent abroad. The rest of these pro­grams have been elim­i­nated with the can­cel­la­tion of Pro­mArts and TradeR­outes. Staff respon­si­ble for arts and cul­ture in for­eign mis­sions has been reduced, as have oper­at­ing bud­gets, requir­ing those who are left to fundraise if they want to assist Cana­dian artists and creators.

This hap­pens at a moment where many coun­tries around the world rein­vest in pub­lic diplo­macy to bet­ter posi­tion them­selves in the world. It is the case, for exam­ple, in the United States where the Bush admin­is­tra­tion has decided to inject $ I bil­lion in pub­lic diplo­macy pro­grams in order to raise the Amer­i­can pro­file, espe­cially in Mus­lim countries.

Sug­gested ques­tions

• Does your party agree that artists, intel­lec­tu­als and cul­tural insti­tu­tions con­tribute as much to the inter­na­tional image of Canada as ath­letes and busi­ness people?

• If so, what pro­grams and poli­cies will your Party put in place to ensure that artists, cre­ators and intel­lec­tu­als par­tic­i­pate in Cana­dian for­eign pol­icy strategy?

• Does your party intend to replace the pro­grams ded­i­cated to the inter­na­tion­al­iza­tion of Cana­dian cul­ture (Pro­mArt and TradeR­outes)? Please pro­vide spe­cific details.

Issue: The Cre­ative Econ­omy– New Hori­zons or Lost Opportunities?

Back­ground

Gov­ern­ments around the world are now devel­op­ing poli­cies and strate­gies to ensure that the tran­si­tion from an agrarian/industrial econ­omy to a cre­ative econ­omy result in ben­e­fits to their cit­i­zens and their economies. The cre­ative econ­omy is largely built around self-employed cre­ative work­ers, which include a large con­tin­gent of artists, cre­ators, arts and cul­ture professionals.

If Canada is to com­pete inter­na­tion­ally and build strength into our domes­tic econ­omy and labour force, our polit­i­cal lead­ers must lead the way. The capac­ity of each polit­i­cal party to respond con­struc­tively to these chal­lenges will be of inter­est to con­cerned voters.

Sug­gested questions

• What does your Party plan to do to stim­u­late and sus­tain the cre­ative econ­omy in Canada?

• Is your Party pre­pared to address the socio-economic needs of self-employed work­ers in the cre­ative econ­omy by find­ing ways to make the social safety net avail­able to them?

• What incen­tives for cre­ativ­ity and inno­va­tion is your Party pre­pared to pro­pose to max­i­mize pro­duc­tiv­ity in the cre­ative economy?

• What plans does your Party have to replace the recently elim­i­nated New Media Fund? When do you plan to imple­ment such mea­sures?