CCA seeks your input as it prepares for the 2007 Federal Pre-Budget Consultations

CCA Bul­letin 33/06

August 11, 2006

• CCA seeks your input as it pre­pares for the 2007 Fed­eral Pre-Budget Consultations
• Blue Rib­bon Panel on grants and contributions

Just the Facts

The CCA is prepar­ing for the 2007 fed­eral pre-budget con­sul­ta­tions. The Pol­icy and Advo­cacy Com­mit­tee will review input from our mem­bers at the end of August to ensure that we meet the Sep­tem­ber 5, 2006 deadline.

The CCA is ask­ing for your input as to what you think should be in the 2007 fed­eral bud­get for the arts and cul­ture sec­tor. Please send your views and argu­ments to the CCA Sec­re­tariat as soon as pos­si­ble but no later than August 22, 2006.

Among the issues that will be part of the Pol­icy and Advo­cacy Com­mit­tee delib­er­a­tions will be:

• increased and sta­ble fund­ing for the arts,
• exten­sion of the child tax credit for phys­i­cal activ­ity to the arts,
• some form of income aver­ag­ing for artists and creators,
• an exemp­tion for copy­right revenue,
• rais­ing the basic per­sonal deduc­tion to $ 11,500.00,
• address­ing the real­ity of grow­ing num­bers of self-employed Cana­di­ans and their access to social benefits.

The CCA will be sub­mit­ting a brief to the Min­is­ter of Finance and to the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee in sup­port of the child tax credit, at the same time as mak­ing its pre-budget submission.

Tell Me More.

The CCA will acknowl­edge the increase to the bud­get of the Canada Coun­cil for the Arts as a pos­i­tive devel­op­ment by the gov­ern­ment, ask that it be made per­ma­nent and push for a speedy assess­ment of the need for any fur­ther increases. While many would insist upon dou­bling the bud­get of the Coun­cil, the Audi­tor Gen­eral will soon be con­duct­ing a value-for-money audit of the Coun­cil. The Gov­ern­ment has said repeat­edly that fur­ther bud­get increases in the cul­tural field would not be made until a series of reviews had been com­pleted. It is there­fore unlikely that the gov­ern­ment would increase the bud­get of the Canada Coun­cil fur­ther until the audit is com­pleted and the results and rec­om­men­da­tions ana­lyzed, which will likely take us after the next fed­eral election.

In the mean­time, how­ever, some of the agen­cies that con­sti­tute the Cana­dian Her­itage Port­fo­lio are in great need of bud­getary increases. The same can be said of the museum and her­itage com­mu­nity who were expect­ing the roll-out of a new muse­ums pol­icy last win­ter. The Min­is­ter of Cana­dian Her­itage, the Hon­ourable Bev Oda told the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Cana­dian Her­itage that she was tak­ing a hard look at the pol­icy devel­oped by the pre­vi­ous gov­ern­ment. She gave no indi­ca­tion that this would take place soon.

Fol­low­ing up on a rec­om­men­da­tion from the del­e­gates at the March Con­fer­ence, the CCA is also con­sid­er­ing tak­ing a broader view of tax issues and locat­ing them in the con­text of a grow­ing num­ber of self-employed Cana­di­ans in all fields of endeav­our. The Pol­icy and Advo­cacy Com­mit­tee of the CCA will con­sider this approach when it exam­ines the input from members.

What Can I Do?

You can send your ideas, rec­om­men­da­tions and argu­ments to the CCA. The pre-budget con­sul­ta­tion has been an oppor­tu­nity for the CCA to bring to the atten­tion of Par­lia­ment and the gov­ern­ment pro­pos­als deal­ing with income tax issues affect­ing artists and cre­ators, fund­ing and pol­icy issues.

Please send your ideas before August 22 to James Mis­sen, Pol­icy Advi­sor, by email at james.missen@ccarts.ca or by reg­u­lar post c/o of the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts, 804–130 Albert Street, Ottawa, Ontario KIP 5G4.

Blue Rib­bon Panel on grants and contributions

Just the Facts

On June 6, 2006, the Pres­i­dent of the Trea­sury Board of Canada, the Hon, John Baird, appointed an inde­pen­dent Blue Rib­bon Panel which, under the Fed­eral Account­abil­ity Act and Action Plan, is man­dated to pro­vide advice on how to strengthen account­abil­ity for the funds spent on the grants and con­tri­bu­tions pro­grams. The Panel will also exam­ine ways of reduc­ing admin­is­tra­tive bar­ri­ers to access and the man­age­ment of these funds.

The panel con­sists of Frances Lankin, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the United Way of Greater Toronto, Ian D. Clark, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Coun­cil of Ontario Uni­ver­si­ties, and Marc Tel­lier, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Yel­low Pages Group.

The panel will report to the Pres­i­dent of the Trea­sury Board by Decem­ber 2006.

What can I do?

The CCA has already announced that it will inter­vene in the Blue Rib­bon Panel process. What is new is that the Panel has now invited all and sundry to pro­vide input through their web­site before Sep­tem­ber 15, 2006. The CCA encour­ages you to share your expe­ri­ence and com­ments with the Panel and would appre­ci­ate greatly receiv­ing a copy of your intervention.