Off to the races! The CCA welcomes you to your 2011 general federal election!
CCA Bulletin 12/11
March 28, 2011
Just the facts
On March 26, 2011, a day after a vote of no-confidence defeated the current Conservative minority government, the 2011 general federal election was called, ending weeks of rising political fervor and speculation. The Governor General dropped the writ this past Saturday sending us all to the polls on May 2nd. In this bulletin, you will find:
- What you can expect from us in the next 35 days;
- An analysis of the state of culture related bills at the end of the 40th Parliament (with the exception of budget bills, which will be the object of a separate analysis).
CCA’s Election 2011 Plan
Over the next several weeks, the CCA will provide you with:
- An analysis of
cultural spending
under Canada’s 40th Parliament;
-
A comparison of the
federal parties’ platforms
that have an impact on the arts, culture and heritage sector;
-
A
Doorstep Kit
that will include questions you can use and adapt when engaging with your local candidates in order to gauge their approaches and that of their party with regards to arts and culture policy;
-
Weekly election e-communiqués
will provide you with media monitoring for arts and culture as the political parties campaign across Canada. We will also give you a weekly update of current events in the arts and culture sector in relation to the election. Look out for these each Friday throughout the campaign.
-
Thinking Culture debate
: On April 20th, in partnership with the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Continuing Education, Centre on Governance and School of Political Studies, the CCA is planning to host a debate among local political candidates to discuss their parties’ platforms on arts, culture and heritage. In order to involve our members across Canada, we will take questions via Twitter using hashtag #ccartsvote and on our blog. We will also post a summary covering where the parties stand on the issue of culture.
What can I do?
If you have any interesting news articles or are planning events which focus on the election from the arts and culture perspective, send them to communications@ccarts.ca and we will include them in our weekly communiqués. Read our blog as we update it with current campaigning events and news stories and engage with us on Twitter and Facebook.
Tell me more
What passed and what died on the vine
The 40th Parliament was prorogued twice and given the realities of a minority government, not many major pieces of legislation made it to Royal Assent from a cultural perspective. A notable exception is the proclamation of
Bill C-34
, amending the Museums Act to establish Canada’s new National Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 in Halifax, the second national museum outside of the national capital region, the first one being the Museum of Human Rights still under construction in Winnipeg.
The main casualty at the end of the 40th Parliament is of course
Bill C-32: An Act to Amend the Copyright Act.
In the past five years, this bill has been the first major piece of culture-related legislation. C-32 was first introduced on June 2, 2010, and debated at second reading on November 2 and 3, 2010. It was referred to a legislative committee on November 5 and since December 2010, the committee has been conducting its study by interviewing witnesses . While C-32 contains urgent amendments that everybody agrees on, it fails to recognize the diversity of cultural markets, current and potential, and proposes a one size fits all solution heralded by some and vigorously opposed by others. This has led the CCA to recommend that legislators go ahead with the amendments that suit one type of business model, but then go back to the drafting board for the other sub-sectors of the cultural economy which operate under totally different circumstances. It is true that at the start of a new Parliament, and conditional upon unanimous agreement of the House, a government public bill may be reinstated at the stage reached at the time of the dissolution of Parliament. This means that theoretically, we could see the work of the legislative committee that was interrupted last week resume once again some time after the election. This however is an unlikely scenario regardless of the election’s outcome, if only because of the position adopted by the Bloc Québécois regarding this piece of legislation.
Private members’ bills
Private members’ bills, like all incomplete Chamber activity in both Houses, cease with the dissolution of Parliament. Dissolution ends all business in the Senate and the House of Commons, and is followed by a general election. This differs from the process following a prorogation, where private members’ bills are reinstated at the same stage they were at before the prorogation was called. It is worth pointing out that private members’ bills rarely make it to Royal Assent, although
Bill C-442
did and
Bill C-470
likely would have as well.
-
C-442
- Mr. Tim Uppal (Edmonton-Sherwood Park) -
An Act to establish a National Holocaust Monument
. Initially introduced in May 2008 and reintroduced three times since, this bill was read for the third time in the Senate on March 24, 2011, and received Royal Assent the next day.
The new law requires the Minister responsible for the National Capital Act to establish and work in cooperation with a National Holocaust Monument Development Council to design and build a National Holocaust Monument to be located in the national capital region.
-
C-470 -
The Hon. Albina Guarnieri (Mississaugua East-Cooksville) -
An Act to amend the Income Tax Act
(disclosure of compensation — registered charities). Tabled for first reading in March 2010, this bill was widely objected to by members of civil society, non-profit organizations and Imagine Canada. At the outset of the study by
the Standing Committee on Finance, Ms. Guarnieri amended her own bill to take out its most controversial element, namely the capping at $250,000 of remuneration for employees of organizations with charitable status. The committee further amended the bill to limit the effects on smaller charities by placing a $100,000 floor on compensation that would have to be publicly divulged. The bill is at third reading in the Senate and will continue its course when Parliament reconvenes.
-
C-499 -
Mr. Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay) -
An Act to amend the Copyright Act (audio recording devices)
this bill is still in first reading at the House of Commons. It purports to amend the Copyright Act to provide for the inclusion of a levy on manufacturers and importers of audio recording devices which are defined as “a device that contains a permanently embedded data storage medium, including solid state or hard disk, designed, manufactured and advertised for the purpose of copying sound recordings, excluding any prescribed kind of recording device.”
-
C-398
- Mr. Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay) -
An Act to amend the Telecommunications Act (Internet neutrality).
First introduced in May 2009, this bill was reinstated in March 2010. Still at first reading, it aims to prohibit telecommunications service providers from engaging in network management practices that favour, degrade or prioritize any content, application or service transmitted over a broadband network based on its source, ownership, destination or type, subject to certain exceptions. This enactment also prohibits telecommunications service providers from preventing a user from attaching any device to their network and requires telecommunications service providers to make information about the user’s access to the Internet available to the user.
-
C-568
- Ms. Carolyn Bennett (St. Paul’s) -
An Act to amend the Statistics Act (mandatory long-form census).
Initiated after last summer’s controversy
concerning the replacement of the long-form census by a voluntary survey, this bill seeks to reinstate the mandatory character of the long-form census while eliminating the threat of imprisonment. Introduced in September 2010, after passing second reading, the bill was referred to the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology on December 8, 2011.
-
C-238
- Ms. Anita Neville (Winnipeg South Centre) -
An Act to establish a Holocaust Monument in the National Capital Region
. This bill was introduced in January 2009 and was reinstated in March 3, 2010.
-
C-454
- Mr. Daryl Kramp (Prince Edward-Hastings) -
An Act to establish a Memorial Wall for Canada’s fallen soldiers and peacekeepers
. Introduced in October 2009, this bill was reinstated for a third time in March 2010. It is still at first reading.
-
C-600
- Mr. Thomas Mulcair (Outremont) -
An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (tax credit for charitable gifts)
. This bill was introduced November 30, 2010. It proposes to
amend section 118.1 of the Income Tax Act to provide an additional non-refundable tax credit to taxpayers whose total eligible charitable gifts for the current taxation year are greater than the total eligible charitable gifts claimed in the 2009 taxation year.