Detailed Analysis of the 2012 Federal Budget: The Aftershocks Are More Severe Than the Earthquake

CCA Bul­letin 15/12

 

Sep­tem­ber 18, 2012

 

The Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA) releases its detailed analy­sis of the Fed­eral Bud­get from the per­spec­tive of cul­ture and her­itage today.

The 2012–2013 fed­eral bud­get is the first real bud­get from the con­ser­v­a­tive major­ity gov­ern­ment. Read­ers may recall that last year, to high­light the con­sis­tency of its approach, the gov­ern­ment rein­tro­duced its elec­toral bud­get. Whereas in our analy­sis of that bud­get, we won­dered where the axe would fall, this year we can detect cer­tain lines of posi­tion­ing. How­ever, the lack of trans­parency in the com­mu­ni­ca­tion of mea­sures taken by the gov­ern­ment and the mul­ti­plic­ity of decision-centres involved made this year’s analy­sis more dif­fi­cult. And as the cuts are spread over three years, it is still unclear how insti­tu­tions will imple­ment them.

In gen­eral, the cul­tural sec­tor as a whole fared a lot bet­ter than many feared, although some areas have been seri­ously hit. Accord­ing to the expense plan, the level of fund­ing from the Depart­ment of Cana­dian Her­itage and its agen­cies declined by nearly $200 mil­lion (6.1%). All orga­ni­za­tions expe­ri­enced a decrease in their fund­ing with the excep­tion of the Cana­dian Museum of Nature. The Canada Coun­cil for the Arts took a hit of only 0.1%, but remem­ber, that these agen­cies, like the Depart­ment, must absorb the cost of infla­tion on goods and ser­vices and on salaries.

 

What are the posi­tions aris­ing from the budget?

 

The gov­ern­ment has yet to present a clear or com­plete vision of its cul­tural pol­icy. How­ever, a gen­eral posi­tion emerges from choices made over the past few years:

1. An accent on pri­vate pub­lic partnerships;
2. Finan­cial sup­port is not an enti­tle­ment. Sev­eral orga­ni­za­tions have learned that this year, includ­ing the CCA;
3. The gov­ern­ment is con­cen­trat­ing its efforts on what it con­sid­ers to be the “fun­da­men­tal roles” of the fed­eral government;
4. The gov­ern­ment appears to con­sider cul­ture as purely a domes­tic affair and is less­en­ing its sup­port of inter­na­tional cul­tural activ­i­ties; and,
5. The gov­ern­ment imparts a more mil­i­tary and polit­i­cal angle than a cul­tural one to the notion of her­itage (e.g., War of 1812, Royal Jubilee, Franklin Expedition).

 

Who Loses Out?

 

Our analy­sis con­firms a fact which rapidly appeared obvi­ous: the audio­vi­sual sec­tor suf­fered the most from the bud­get cuts, fol­lowed by the her­itage sec­tor, despite the pro­tec­tions granted to the national museums.

In the audio­vi­sual sec­tor, we were well pre­pared for the cuts to the CBC, so the only sur­prise is the col­lat­eral dam­age pro­duced. The cuts of $115 mil­lion dol­lars are not triv­ial. To that, we must add the CRTC’s elim­i­na­tion of the Local Pro­gram­ming Improve­ment Fund (LPIF), used by 20 Eng­lish and French tele­vi­sion sta­tions in the CBC-Radio-Canada net­works to pro­duce regional pro­grams. This amounts to a $40 mil­lion loss that par­tic­u­larly hurts fran­coph­one com­mu­ni­ties who had ben­e­fited from a greater num­ber of regional news­casts. The NFB and Tele­film Canada also had to endure 10% cuts in their budgets.

With respect to her­itage, the gov­ern­ment spared the national muse­ums and increased the indem­ni­fi­ca­tion limit in the Canada Trav­el­ling Exhi­bi­tions Indem­ni­fi­ca­tion Pro­gram. Nonethe­less, Min­is­ter Flaherty’s bud­get was quite harsh for the her­itage sector.

The impact of the cuts made by the Depart­ment of Cana­dian Her­itage at the Library and Archives Canada will be dis­as­trous: the can­cel­la­tion of the National Archival Devel­op­ment Pro­gram (NADP) affects numer­ous provin­cial archive coun­cils and will lead to the clo­sure of sev­eral archive cen­ters. To the severe cuts at Her­itage, we must add the just as strin­gent cuts imposed on Parks Canada. We will recall that, some years ago, Parks Canada was trans­ferred to Envi­ron­ment Canada and seems to suf­fer from its estrange­ment with Cana­dian Heritage.

Severe cuts at Sta­tis­tics Canada have led to the demise of the last rem­nants of a once vibrant Cul­ture Sta­tis­tics Divi­sion and the bud­get also drove the final nail into the cof­fin of cul­tural diplo­macy. Cul­tural attachés, inter­na­tional aca­d­e­mic rela­tions and Cana­dian stud­ies abroad all fell under the axe.

 

Tell me more

 

Close to 25 pages of analy­sis and tables are avail­able in our analy­sis of the fed­eral bud­get. This year, the bud­getary analy­sis is free to mem­bers. Non-members may obtain the analy­sis for a cost of $250. The detailed text may be ordered on our web­site.