CCA Bul­letin 27/08

August 25, 2008

While many of us were enjoy­ing the sum­mer, the fed­eral gov­ern­ment has announced a series of cuts of around $40 mil­lion to cul­tural pro­grams and the elim­i­na­tion of oth­ers. Today, the CCA is pub­lish­ing a com­pre­hen­sive list of the pro­grams that are affected by those cuts and we will be pro­vid­ing fur­ther infor­ma­tion on these mea­sures in the next few days. Today, the focus will be on the elim­i­na­tion of the Pro­mArt pro­gram at the Depart­ment of For­eign Affairs and Inter­na­tional Trade (DFAIT) and the phas­ing out of the Trade Routes pro­gram at the Depart­ment of Cana­dian Her­itage (DCH).

Just the Facts

There has been a steady stream of crit­i­cism about the recently announced bud­get cuts to the TradeR­outes Pro­gram and Pro­mArt pro­gram. The vast major­ity of news­pa­per, radio and tele­vi­sion com­men­taries have been neg­a­tive regard­ing these decisions.

The Depart­ment of Cana­dian Her­itage has said that the deci­sion to abol­ish TradeR­outes was based on the results of a value for money review. The pro­gram resources ($9 M) are largely con­sumed by the salaries and liv­ing expenses of cul­tural trade offi­cers sta­tioned across Canada and var­i­ous major cities around the world. While a rel­a­tively small amount of money was actu­ally ded­i­cated to mak­ing grants and con­tri­bu­tion, artists, pro­duc­ers and arts pro­fes­sion­als who use their ser­vices have indi­cated a high degree of sat­is­fac­tion with the assis­tance provided.

The DFAIT Pro­mArt pro­gram ($4.7M) is also abol­ished with­out expla­na­tion, apart from the curi­ous spin the gov­ern­ment decided to give to the announce­ment. It fol­lows the ini­tial 2006 cuts to the pro­gram of $11.8 mil­lion over 2 years.

The often rel­a­tively small amounts granted under both pro­grams have had a lever­age effect for many artists and orga­ni­za­tions as they sought sup­port to develop mar­kets abroad, con­tribute to our national image and lend val­ued sup­port to other gen­eral trade devel­op­ment efforts of our mis­sions abroad.  At the time of writ­ing, there is no clear indi­ca­tion that the gov­ern­ment intends to replace these pro­grams with more per­form­ing ones.

Tell me more

When the Hon. Sheila Copps, for­mer Min­is­ter of Cana­dian Her­itage, announced the TradeR­outes Pro­gram, she out­lined spe­cific out­comes that pro­gram would achieve – tar­gets for export increases of tele­vi­sion, film, sound record­ing, etc. The value for money review likely assessed actual pro­gram per­for­mance against these antic­i­pated results as a part of the decision-making process. If that is indeed the case, it is sur­pris­ing that the gov­ern­ment did not refer to such reviews to explain its decisions.

While theTradeR­outes Pro­gram may have had some design flaws, the objec­tive of devel­op­ing inter­na­tional mar­kets and audi­ences for Cana­dian cul­tural goods and ser­vices is an entirely wor­thy one con­sis­tent with the role of the fed­eral gov­ern­ment. With the Van­cou­ver Whistler 2010 Olympics on the hori­zon, the need for a strat­egy to cap­i­tal­ize on the huge world audi­ence for the Games both before and after the event should be appar­ent. Aus­tralians have noted that the lack of a follow-up strat­egy to their host­ing the Olympics was a seri­ous strate­gic error that could not be corrected.

Pre­oc­cu­pied with the impact of the can­cel­la­tion of TradeR­outes, the CCA has invited the Chair of the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Her­itage to call Min­is­ter Verner to pro­vide much needed infor­ma­tion on the rea­sons of the gov­ern­ment to can­cel the pro­gram and on its inten­tions, if any, to con­tinue sup­port­ing the devel­op­ment of cul­tural mar­kets abroad, as it does for almost any other sec­tor of the Cana­dian economy.

The Pro­mArt pro­gram at the DFAIT is another mat­ter entirely. Ever since the 2006 severe cuts, rumours have per­sisted that the pro­gram was headed for the scrap heap. Over the past year, the CCA has been address­ing the issue of pub­lic diplo­macy and the role of the arts and cul­ture sec­tor in any national strat­egy. It is not a purely Cana­dian idea: amongst other nations, the United States and Great Britain have renewed their com­mit­ment to sup­port­ing the arts as an effec­tive tool of pub­lic diplomacy.

Gov­ern­ment spokesper­sons have men­tioned groups like “Holy Fuck” and com­men­ta­tor Gwynne Dyer or film­maker Avi Lewis as indi­ca­tions that the recip­i­ents of sup­port from the pro­gram may not reflect well on Canada internationally.

There are two crit­i­cal errors in this ratio­nale. First of all the pro­gram is oper­ated by pub­lic ser­vants who make fund­ing rec­om­men­da­tions to senior offi­cials and all such deci­sions are ulti­mately made by the Min­is­ter of For­eign Affairs. This is not a case of some “wonky” peer assess­ment process delib­er­ately try­ing to be out­ra­geous or cast­ing the Depart­ment in an unfavourable light. If the recip­i­ents appear con­tro­ver­sial, it is not their fault – they did not jerry-rig the sys­tem to receive sup­port. Sec­ondly, it has been estab­lished that with a num­ber of the “out­ra­geous” exam­ples quoted, recip­i­ents had not in fact applied for the travel grants but had responded specif­i­cally to an invi­ta­tion made to them by the Depart­ment itself!

Just as unex­plain­able is the fact that the Depart­ment has also sig­naled that it will no longer con­tribute to the Cana­dian pavil­ion at the Venice Bien­nale, leav­ing the National Gallery and the Canada Coun­cil for the Arts to foot the bill out of their exist­ing bud­gets. This inter­na­tional event is one of the most pres­ti­gious visual arts exhi­bi­tions in the world and Canada made a very force­ful impres­sion at the 2001 Bien­nale when Janet Cardiff and Georges Bures Miller has been awarded the jury spe­cial award. Sim­i­larly Sweater­Lodge, a project by Pechet and Robb Stu­dio of Van­cou­ver, drew a lot of inter­na­tional atten­tion at the 2006 Bien­nale. For­eign Affairs now seems to be con­tent to leave the task of build­ing Canada’s rep­u­ta­tion and image abroad as a cre­ative nation to other play­ers who are appar­ently expected to make the dif­fer­ence out of their exist­ing funds.

Fur­ther­more, what­ever has hap­pened to our much-vaunted com­mit­ment to cul­tural diver­sity? The abil­ity of Canada to demon­strate not only racial, eth­nic and lin­guis­tic diver­sity to the world must also include cre­ative and artis­tic diver­sity. DFAIT has always had some dis­com­fort with the arts and with Min­is­ters such as the Hon.Lloyd Axwor­thy, the Right Hon­ourable Joe Clark and the Hon. Flora Mac­Don­ald who were cham­pi­ons of engag­ing the arts in the pur­suit of for­eign pol­icy objectives.

It is clear that some seri­ous think­ing is required to facil­i­tate the pro­mo­tion of Cana­dian artists, cre­ators and arts pro­fes­sion­als on the inter­na­tional state. The CCA is call­ing upon the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on For­eign Affairs and Inter­na­tional Devel­op­ment to urgently address the issue of the arts and cul­ture in for­eign pol­icy and pub­lic diplomacy.

We have too much to lose if we merely shrug our shoul­ders – the real value for money in these pro­grams can­not be mea­sured with­out an appre­ci­a­tion of how our artists, cre­ators and arts pro­fes­sional enhance the image of Canada as a sophis­ti­cated, diverse and cre­ative nation.

What Can I Do?

Please con­sider a let­ter to the Chair­man of the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on For­eign Affairs and the Chair­man of the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Cana­dian Her­itage ask­ing them to urgently address this issue. This is clearly not a ques­tion we can afford to lie fallow.

You can also write to  Prime Min­is­ter Harper, to Her­itage Min­is­ter Josée Verner and to Min­is­ter of For­eign Affairs David Emerson

The CCA is also con­tact­ing the lead­ers of the other fed­eral polit­i­cal par­ties to deter­mine their posi­tion on this issue. You might also con­sider doing the same. If rumors are cor­rect we are headed for a fall elec­tion – let us now ensure all polit­i­cal par­ties under­stand the impor­tance and urgency of this matter.

You can also con­tact your MP to reg­is­ter your opin­ion, and if you are in one of the four rid­ings where by-elections have been called, you can ask each can­di­date to clearly state where they stand on the issue. Fol­low this link to find con­tact infor­ma­tion for your MP.