ADVOCACY ALERT! IT’S TIME TO ADVOCATE AGAIN FOR THE RENEWAL OF FUNDING

Ottawa , Sep­tem­ber 15th , 2004

The Issue

The renewal of the fund­ing for the cul­tural sec­tor is again up for discussion.

As the open­ing of Par­lia­ment draws closer (4 Octo­ber), CCA alerts its mem­bers to the fact that this fall will also see the start of the process to renew the fund­ing (orig­i­nally called Tomor­row Starts Today) for the cul­tural sector.

The process to receive Cab­i­net approval has always been fairly lengthy and cum­ber­some, but it was changed – “stream­lined” accord­ing to some sources – last Decem­ber.   In a nut­shell, this is how it works:

•  The Oper­a­tions Committee

The newly-formed Oper­a­tions Com­mit­tee of Cab­i­net, chaired by Deputy Prime Min­is­ter Anne McLel­lan, acts as the gate­keeper for Cab­i­net, and is the first stage of the process.   Gov­ern­ment depart­ments sub­mit a two page issue brief to this Com­mit­tee in the first instance; only once the brief has received a green light here can a full Memo to Cab­i­net pro­ceed up the lad­der.   Mme Liza Frulla, Min­is­ter of Cana­dian Her­itage, is a mem­ber of this Committee.

•  The Domes­tic Affairs Committee

The full Memo to Cab­i­net is intro­duced first to the Domes­tic Affairs Com­mit­tee (Liza Frulla is Vice-Chair) which has to approve it before it can go to the full Cabinet.

•  Cab­i­net

The Memo finally makes its way to the full Cab­i­net for dis­cus­sion.   All this takes time, and there is no indi­ca­tion at the moment of when the final Memo to Cab­i­net will go forward.

A com­plete list­ing of min­is­ters who serve on the above-mentioned Cab­i­net com­mit­tees can be found at www.pco-bcp.gc.ca ; go to Infor­ma­tion Resources, Cab­i­net Com­mit­tee Man­dates and Membership.

Later this week, rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Depart­ment of Cana­dian Her­itage start a series of invitation-only cross-country ses­sions with provin­cial coun­ter­parts and a num­ber of key stake­hold­ers to dis­cuss how the pro­grammes have worked over the past four years, and what can be done to improve the terms and con­di­tions, and deliv­ery mechanisms.

DCH is cur­rently work­ing on draw­ing up the issue brief and the Memo to Cab­i­net; the lat­ter might only receive its fin­ish­ing touches fol­low­ing the Speech from the Throne on 5 Octo­ber in order to assure that any new gov­ern­ment objec­tives are reflected in the DCH doc­u­ment.   Should the doc­u­ment be accepted by Cab­i­net this autumn, DCH then needs to go to Trea­sury Board to renew the terms and con­di­tions for the pro­grammes, which cur­rently expire at the end of March 2005.

In other words: this is a lengthy process with all gov­ern­ment depart­ments vying for Cab­i­net approval, and the cul­tural sec­tor needs to put its weight behind the efforts of DCH .

The Actions :

•  Con­tact your local MP, your regional Min­is­ter, and other decision-makers at the fed­eral level, pro­vid­ing them with the key mes­sages (see below).   Ensure they are aware of the impor­tance of this rein­vest­ment and the con­se­quences of non-investment, par­tic­u­larly as it relates to their constituency.

•  Ensure your members/audiences are aware of the need for this rein­vest­ment in the cul­tural sec­tor, and the con­se­quences of non-investment, par­tic­u­larly as it relates to qual­ity of life.

•  Use the Advo­cacy Primer devel­oped by the CCA dur­ing the recent elec­tion cam­paign for sug­ges­tions for fur­ther action.   (The Primer is avail­able at http://www.ccarts.ca/en/advocacy/publications/toolkits/index.html#howtoadvocacy )

With Par­lia­ment gear­ing up for the start of a new ses­sion, and the process for renewal of the fund­ing about to begin, now is the time for CCA mem­bers to con­tact their MPs, regional min­is­ters, and other influ­en­tial decision-makers, with a view to empha­siz­ing just how impor­tant this fund­ing is to the sec­tor.   This is espe­cially nec­es­sary in a minor­ity gov­ern­ment sit­u­a­tion when the next elec­tion might only be a cou­ple of years’ away.

The Mes­sages :

•  The qual­ity and quan­tity of the arts in Canada will decline with­out a strong com­mit­ment for ongo­ing sup­port from the fed­eral government.

•  Invest­ing in the arts brings huge social and eco­nomic returns to our communities.

•  Cuts to arts pro­grams, or uncer­tainty of deliv­ery, under­mine the abil­ity of arts and cul­tural groups to lever­age addi­tional sup­port.

The Follow-up :

It is impor­tant for those plan­ning to sub­mit pre-Budget briefs to ensure these also make strong argu­ments for renewal of the fund­ing.

A letter/email cam­paign to key min­is­ters fol­lowed by cogent argu­ments in the pre-Budget sub­mis­sions, will ensure a solid one-two punch in sup­port of the fund­ing. CCA has yet to hear when the pre-Budget con­sul­ta­tions will take place.   Our own sub­mis­sion will be avail­able on our web­site in the near future; key rec­om­men­da­tions include:

•  The require­ment for sta­ble, reli­able fund­ing for the sector.

•  A full-scale exam­i­na­tion of self-employment in Canada , and in par­tic­u­lar in the cul­tural sec­tor, with par­tic­u­lar empha­sis on mak­ing social ben­e­fits avail­able to these individuals.

•  Income aver­ag­ing for the self-employed.

•  A tax exemp­tion for artists’ income.

CCA would appre­ci­ate receiv­ing copies of mem­bers’ advo­cacy letters/emails to MPs re the renewal of the fund­ing, and of any pre-Budget sub­mis­sions which may be submitted.