CCA Bul­letin 13/11

April 5, 2011

The Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts’ main man­date — one that has been finan­cially sup­ported by the fed­eral gov­ern­ment for over 40 years — is to con­tribute to an informed pub­lic debate on cul­tural issues,. In keep­ing with this man­date and in order to assist Cana­di­ans inter­ested in learn­ing about how arts and cul­ture are being dis­cussed dur­ing the 2011 elec­toral cam­paign, the CCA has iden­ti­fied

six broad areas of impor­tance for artists, cre­ators, cul­tural insti­tu­tions and industries.

The CCA has devel­oped a set of ques­tions per­tain­ing to each issue. These ques­tions can be pre­sented to can­di­dates when they come knock­ing at your door or dur­ing larger debates.

Today’s bul­letin includes the first of two doorstep kits the CCA will pub­lish. The ques­tions we have put forth touch on three impor­tant issues fac­ing the arts and cul­ture sec­tor in Canada. The top­ics raised ques­tion:

1) the role of the fed­eral gov­ern­ment in fos­ter­ing a cre­ative dig­i­tal economy

;

2) the role of cul­ture and arts in inter­na­tional diplomacy

; and

3) fis­cal mea­sures to sup­port the growth of the sector

.  Each set of ques­tions is pre­ceded by a short back­grounder on the issue. We encour­age you to dis­sem­i­nate the responses you receive, either in writ­ing or in a pub­lic forum.

These ques­tions have also been sent to the lead­ers of each polit­i­cal party. As is made clear in the CCA’s Fed­eral Elec­tion Rules of Engage­ment, the CCA will present an analy­sis of the posi­tions of each fed­eral party as they affect the inter­ests of Cana­di­ans with regards to arts, cul­ture and her­itage. The CCA will not endorse any can­di­date or polit­i­cal party. The deci­sion to cast a bal­lot is the right and duty of every Cana­dian cit­i­zen, who can form their judg­ments on an indi­vid­ual basis.

Issue: Cul­tural Invest­ments as part of the National Eco­nomic Strategy

Back­ground

Gov­ern­ments around the world have devel­oped poli­cies and strate­gies to ensure that the tran­si­tion from an indus­trial econ­omy to a dig­i­tal econ­omy ben­e­fits their cit­i­zens and their economies. The dig­i­tal econ­omy is largely built around self-employed cre­ative work­ers, among whom there stands a large con­tin­gent of artists, cre­ators and arts and cul­ture pro­fes­sion­als. If Canada is to com­pete inter­na­tion­ally and strengthen its domes­tic econ­omy and labour force, our polit­i­cal lead­ers must lead the way.

Con­ver­sa­tions about the dig­i­tal and cre­ative econ­omy must move away from an exclu­sive focus on build­ing phys­i­cal infra­struc­ture. These con­ver­sa­tions must take into account the neces­sity and pres­ence of Cana­dian cul­ture in the dig­i­tal uni­verse. The suc­cess of our arts, cul­ture and national cohe­sion will depend upon how well new leg­is­la­tion recal­i­brates the dig­i­tal fac­tors that per­me­ate all aspects of our lives. A national strat­egy must include new tools and strate­gies that allow Cana­di­ans to extract the max­i­mum ben­e­fits from new media, while also secur­ing their right to their own cul­ture. This is why the CCA feels that it is impor­tant to cast the debate not only in terms of devel­op­ing a “dig­i­tal econ­omy strat­egy for Canada” but rather, in terms of devel­op­ing an eco­nomic, social and cul­tural dig­i­tal strat­egy for Canadians.

A few par­tic­u­lar areas of inter­est to develop a cohe­sive pol­icy plat­form include: train­ing and pro­fes­sional devel­op­ment for artists; inno­v­a­tive intel­lec­tual prop­erty rules through new copy­right leg­is­la­tion; invest­ment in Cana­dian con­tent; retain­ing own­er­ship and con­trol of Cana­dian cul­tural indus­tries; and dig­i­tal infra­struc­ture and cul­tural poli­cies. Extend­ing dig­i­tal lit­er­acy to all Cana­di­ans is also a major pre­oc­cu­pa­tion.  With­out a doubt, it is vital that Cana­di­ans have access to the best per­form­ing net­works. How­ever, it is even more impor­tant that they learn how to use dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies to fos­ter their com­mu­nity life.

Sug­gested ques­tions:

• What invest­ments does your party pro­pose to make in arts and cul­ture as a com­po­nent of a national eco­nomic strategy?

• Does your party sup­port increas­ing the bud­get of the Canada Coun­cil for the Arts and if so, to what level and over what time frame?

• What mea­sures does your party pro­pose to sup­port tour­ing and the cir­cu­la­tion of the works of Cana­dian artists across Canada?

• Does your National Dig­i­tal Strat­egy include the cre­ation of com­mu­nity mul­ti­me­dia cen­tres across Canada? If it does, explain how you pro­pose to do so.

Issue: Pro­mot­ing Cana­dian Cul­ture on the Inter­na­tional Stage

Back­ground

From 1995 to 2005, the pro­mo­tion of Cana­dian val­ues and cul­ture abroad was the so-called third pil­lar of Cana­dian for­eign pol­icy. Many artists, cre­ators and aca­d­e­mics were sent abroad as ambas­sadors and sym­bols of excel­lence of our country.

A pol­icy paper pub­lished by the Lib­eral gov­ern­ment in 2005 first erased any men­tion of cul­ture as the third pil­lar of Cana­dian for­eign pol­icy. In 2006, a first cut was made to cul­tural diplo­macy. The remain­ing cul­tural diplo­macy pro­grams were elim­i­nated with the can­cel­la­tion of Pro­mArt and Trade Routes just prior to the 2008 elec­tion. Staff respon­si­ble for arts and cul­ture in for­eign mis­sions was reduced, as were oper­at­ing bud­gets, requir­ing those left to fundraise in order to assist Cana­dian artists and creators.

This occurred at a moment when many coun­tries around the world are rein­vest­ing in pub­lic diplo­macy to bet­ter posi­tion them­selves in the world. Recently, the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of State for Edu­ca­tional and Cul­tural Affairs of the United States, Ann Stock, gave a talk titled: “Cul­ture in Diplo­macy: A New Era for Arts & Cul­tural Rela­tions.” Dur­ing her pre­sen­ta­tion, Assis­tant Sec­re­tary Stock out­lined the Obama administration’s efforts to use cul­tural diplo­macy as an impor­tant for­eign pol­icy tool and empha­sized the Department’s man­date to estab­lish more mutu­ally rec­i­p­ro­cal rela­tions with for­eign cul­tural groups and pro­grams. She touched on many of the State Department’s flag­ship cul­tural pro­gram ini­tia­tives, includ­ing Rhythm Road, Dance­Mo­tion, smART Power, Cen­ter Stage and Cul­tural Envoys.

Sug­gested ques­tions:

• What does your party pro­pose to do for the devel­op­ment of for­eign mar­kets for Cana­dian cul­tural prod­ucts? What do you intend to do to sup­port the cir­cu­la­tion of the works of Cana­dian artists abroad?

• How would you incor­po­rate cul­ture into diplo­matic strate­gies and trade objec­tives?

• What mea­sures will you take to pro­tect cul­ture in inter­na­tional trade negotiations?

Issue: Fis­cal Measures

Back­ground

The CCA believes that self-employed cre­ative work­ers should receive the same types of social and eco­nomic advan­tages granted to oth­ers in the work­force. They should also ben­e­fit from fis­cal mea­sures that rec­og­nize the speci­ficity of their con­di­tion (as is the case, for exam­ple, for fish­ers, hair­dressers and taxi drivers).

On the other hand, the gov­ern­ment should adopt fis­cal mea­sures to fos­ter arts phil­an­thropy and invest­ment in cul­tural indus­tries. The cul­tural sec­tor is an impor­tant com­po­nent of our country’s cre­ative econ­omy and must be nur­tured if Canada wants to keep its rank among the lead­ing nations of the world.

Sug­gested ques­tions:

• What does your party pro­pose to do to improve the fis­cal con­di­tions and social safety net avail­able to self-employed artists and cre­ators in the cre­ative economy?

• What fis­cal mea­sures does your party pro­pose to encour­age arts phil­an­thropy and pri­vate invest­ment in arts and cul­tural industries?

Tomor­row, ques­tions on: the mod­ern­iza­tion of the Copy­right Act; broad­cast­ing, telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions and new media; and heritage.