CULTURE PART OF LIBERALS’ VISION

Ottawa , Octo­ber 5, 2004 — With its main themes of coop­er­a­tion (essen­tial for a minor­ity gov­ern­ment) and fis­cal dis­ci­pline, today’s Speech from the Throne was mainly a com­mit­ment to fol­low through on the key Lib­eral party promises made dur­ing the elec­tion cam­paign.   In essence the “vision” for Canada for the next Par­lia­men­tary ses­sion, the Speech con­tained one spe­cific men­tion of cul­ture at the end of the sec­tion about Cities and Communities :

“What makes our com­mu­ni­ties vibrant and cre­ative is the qual­ity of their cul­tural life. The gov­ern­ment will fos­ter cul­tural insti­tu­tions and poli­cies that aspire to excel­lence, reflect a diverse and mul­ti­cul­tural soci­ety, respond to the new chal­lenges of glob­al­iza­tion and the dig­i­tal econ­omy, and pro­mote diver­sity of views and cul­tural expres­sion at home and abroad.”

CCA hopes this is in fact a strong indi­ca­tion that the gov­ern­ment will renew the Tomor­row Starts Today (TST) funding.

How­ever, the cul­tural sec­tor should not take this for granted.

It is still vitally impor­tant that CCA mem­bers inform the gov­ern­ment (MPs, Min­is­ters, and key deci­sion mak­ers) how cru­cial this fund­ing is to the sec­tor.   They need to hear that the renewal must be:

• for at least 5 years (the orig­i­nal TST was for 3 years with a one year extension);
• at an increased level of fund­ing (the orig­i­nal TST in 2001 was for $560 mil­lion over 3 years);
• guar­an­teed as soon as pos­si­ble so arts groups can plan for the next fis­cal year (for some arts groups it might already be too late).

Advo­cacy Action

More infor­ma­tion on how to take action can be found in CCA’s bul­letin of Sep­tem­ber 15 (41/04) and on our web­site .   Please take the time to read the mate­r­ial and to send off let­ters and/or emails to MPs, Min­is­ters, and other key deci­sion mak­ers.   With this minor­ity gov­ern­ment, cau­cus has a greater say than pre­vi­ously, and lob­by­ing efforts to MPs is extremely impor­tant. CCA would appre­ci­ate it if copies could be for­warded to our offices, for information.

OTHER PLUSES, MINUSES AND UNKNOWNS

+ One of the government’s seven guid­ing com­mit­ments is “to defend the Char­ter of Rights and Freedoms”.

+ “The first ele­ment is to invest in peo­ple, Canada ‘s great­est source of cre­ativ­ity and eco­nomic strength.”

+ There will be con­tin­ued empha­sis on skills upgrad­ing in col­lab­o­ra­tion with sec­tor councils.

+ “The gov­ern­ment will con­tinue to review the Employ­ment Insur­ance pro­gram to ensure that it remains well-suited to the needs of Canada ‘s work­force.”

+ “The gov­ern­ment is deter­mined to fos­ter the social econ­omy … to cre­ate the con­di­tions for their suc­cess….   To that end, it will intro­duce a new Not-for-Profit Cor­po­ra­tions Act.”

+ Devel­op­ment of a “first-ever com­pre­hen­sive strat­egy for the North”.   The Speech describes the North as a “vast area of unique cul­tural and eco­log­i­cal significance”.

+ “For a decade, all gov­ern­ments have under­stood that the most impor­tant invest­ment that can be made is in our chil­dren…. chil­dren must have real oppor­tu­ni­ties to learn.”   This might pro­vide oppor­tu­ni­ties for the National Strat­egy for Arts and Learn­ing in which CCA is a part­ner, with the Canada Coun­cil and UNESCO.

- “[The gov­ern­ment] will table leg­is­la­tion to … crack down on child pornog­ra­phy.”    (Check this against the first plus shown.)

- In the sec­tion relat­ing to Canada ‘s cities and com­mu­ni­ties, men­tion is made of “build­ing a bet­ter qual­ity of life”, but only areas such as pub­lic tran­sit, roads, clean water, green spaces, and sew­ers are men­tioned here.   (How­ever, it should be noted that the para­graph on cul­ture, quoted at the top of this bul­letin, does come at the con­clu­sion this section.)

? In the descrip­tion of Canada ‘s need to improve its rela­tion­ship with the United States , the Speech states “… it is no longer pos­si­ble to sep­a­rate domes­tic and inter­na­tional poli­cies…. [the rela­tion­ship] must be built on shared val­ues, on mutual respect, and on a strong and inde­pen­dent voice for Canada “.   Does this speak against for­eign own­er­ship of Canada ‘s cul­tural indus­tries?   Or the opposite?

One of the key themes through­out the Speech from the Throne was that of “fis­cal dis­ci­pline”, some­thing very famil­iar to those in the cul­tural sec­tor.   As Jean Malavoy, National Direc­tor of the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts, stated in response to the Speech : “The good news is that artists and arts orga­ni­za­tions are already the most unwa­ver­ing cham­pi­ons of fis­cal dis­ci­pline.   This rep­re­sents a fur­ther com­pelling rea­son for sup­port­ing the arts, in addi­tion to the arts being cen­tral to help­ing chil­dren and youth develop valu­able life skills, con­tribut­ing to the qual­ity of life of our com­mu­ni­ties, and reflect­ing our national identity.”

IN OTHER BUSINESS

The bud­get esti­mates from the last Bud­get (Feb­ru­ary 2004) still need to be re-tabled.   This means the esti­mates must go before the appro­pri­ate par­lia­men­tary Stand­ing Com­mit­tee for review.   (It is hoped the Stand­ing Com­mit­tees’ mem­ber­ship will be known within 7–10 days.)

The Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Cana­dian Her­itage, which is where the esti­mates for the cul­tural sec­tor will be exam­ined, will have 12 mem­bers: 5 Lib­er­als, 4 Con­ser­v­a­tives, 2 Bloc québé­cois, and 1 New Demo­c­ra­tic Party mem­ber.   The chair will be Lib­eral, the 1st vice-chair Con­ser­v­a­tive, and the 2nd vice-chair BQ.    Given that the Lib­er­als no longer have a major­ity on the com­mit­tee, it is pos­si­ble that the oppo­si­tion par­ties could reject or reduce the esti­mates, but they are not allowed to increase them.   It remains to be seen what effect the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Cana­dian Her­itage could have on the Bud­get esti­mates for the cur­rent fis­cal year.