FEDERAL, PROVINCIAL AND TERRITORIAL MINISTERS BACK TOMORROW STARTS TODAY RENEWAL

Ottawa , Novem­ber 1, 2004 — A num­ber of promis­ing res­o­lu­tions have emerged from the meet­ing of fed­eral, provin­cial and ter­ri­to­r­ial min­is­ters respon­si­ble for cul­ture and her­itage, which was held in Hal­i­fax on Octo­ber 30.   The focus of the meet­ing was “Invest­ing in cre­ativ­ity: The role of arts, cul­ture, cul­tural indus­tries and her­itage in strength­en­ing social and eco­nomic growth at the com­mu­nity level”.

Of par­tic­u­lar inter­est are the fol­low­ing resolutions:

“… the Provin­cial and Ter­ri­to­r­ial Min­is­ters Respon­si­ble for Cul­ture and Her­itage strongly urge the Gov­ern­ment of Canada to renew the Tomor­row Starts Today ini­tia­tive and the His­toric Places Ini­tia­tive, and to con­tinue the pro­grams for at least five years at the cur­rent or an increased level of invest­ment .” (CCA empha­sis)

CCA is pleased to see strong sup­port for renewal of the fund­ing from this meet­ing.   How­ever, the provinces and ter­ri­to­ries also urged the fed­eral gov­ern­ment to involve them in a “mean­ing­ful fash­ion” when invest­ing funds from Tomor­row Starts Today.   CCA has heard from many of its mem­bers that fund­ing from the Depart­ment of Cana­dian Her­itage is already extremely slow; it is to be hoped that such involve­ment from the provin­cial level will not bring deliv­ery of fund­ing to a com­plete stand­still.   Indi­vid­ual artists, arts orga­ni­za­tions, cul­tural fes­ti­vals and events, MUST be able to rely on sta­ble, multi-year pro­grams where fund­ing is deliv­ered in a timely manner.

“… the Fed­eral, Provin­cial and Ter­ri­to­r­ial Min­is­ters Respon­si­ble for Cul­ture and Her­itage pledge their renewed col­lab­o­ra­tive efforts towards the elab­o­ra­tion of the Con­ven­tion, which would reit­er­ate the right of gov­ern­ments to adopt cul­tural policies.”

CCA wel­comed this com­mit­ment from the provincial/territorial min­is­ters of cul­ture as it rein­forces the work of the Inter­na­tional Net­work for Cul­tural Diver­sity, the world­wide net­work of artists and cul­tural groups under the umbrella of the CCA.   INCD has sup­ported the global lead­er­ship of the fed­eral gov­ern­ment and the active engage­ment of the gov­ern­ment of Que­bec on this file and has worked with other provin­cial lead­ers to pro­mote the con­ven­tion over the past 4 years.   CCA and INCD believe that a timely and effec­tive con­ven­tion at UNESCO will form the foun­da­tion for sound cul­tural poli­cies in all regions of Canada and abroad. A UNESCO Con­ven­tion that is equiv­a­lent in sta­tus to the trade agree­ments, con­tains con­crete mea­sures to sup­port cul­tural devel­op­ment, and acknowl­edges the broad scope of cul­tural pol­icy tools, can be the foun­da­tion for strong cul­tural poli­cies in all parts of Canada , as well as in other coun­tries.   We con­grat­u­late the min­is­ters for rec­og­niz­ing the sig­nif­i­cance and vital role of the Con­ven­tion and hope that the renewed com­mit­ment of all Cana­dian gov­ern­ments will spark greater aware­ness and sup­port in the media and the pub­lic across the coun­try. (For more on the Con­ven­tion, visit the INCD web­site at www.incd.net ).

(The news release and the provincial-territorial res­o­lu­tions are avail­able at www.canadianheritage.gc.ca under Media Room.)

Socio-Economic Con­di­tions for Artists

Another topic dis­cussed by this group of min­is­ters involved the socio-economic con­di­tions for artists, in par­tic­u­lar in light of the changes made to the Sta­tus of the Artist Act by the Province of Québec and the new action plan that gov­ern­ment is putting for­ward to improve the sit­u­a­tion for artists.

It is par­tic­u­larly inter­est­ing to jux­ta­pose this to a recent response from Ralph Goodale, Min­is­ter of Finance, to a let­ter sent by the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance.   The SAA let­ter advo­cated for an exemp­tion of income tax on a por­tion of artis­tic income, and for income aver­ag­ing.   In his response, the Min­is­ter (who is also the MP for Regina where SAA has its offices) stated:

“As you are aware, the Gov­ern­ment is com­mit­ted to the pro­mo­tion of a strong Cana­dian iden­tity, and a strong cul­tural indus­try is piv­otal in such an endeav­our.   How­ever, with regard to your sug­ges­tions to assist artists through a tax exemp­tion or income aver­ag­ing, we are not con­sid­er­ing such mea­sures at this time.   The Income Tax Act (the “Act”) already pro­vides many tax ben­e­fits to artists that are not pro­vided to other Cana­di­ans.   It would be dif­fi­cult to jus­tify giv­ing artists fur­ther ben­e­fits with­out extend­ing the same to other groups.

“You sug­gest that the Act deem artists to be inde­pen­dent con­trac­tors, unless oth­er­wise spec­i­fied in their con­tracts.   I would sug­gest, how­ever, that any such deter­mi­na­tions should be based on the actual sit­u­a­tion of the artist.   Cur­rently, the dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion between an employee and an inde­pen­dent con­trac­tor is based on prin­ci­ples estab­lished by the courts and is made on a case-by-case basis.   We believe this prac­tice is most equi­table and there­fore should be continued.”

Pre-Budget Sub­mis­sion Hearing

A tax exemp­tion on copy­right income and income aver­ag­ing for artists are two of the rec­om­men­da­tions con­tained in CCA’s pre-Budget sub­mis­sion.   CCA has now received an invi­ta­tion to present before the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Finance on Tues­day Novem­ber 23, imme­di­ately fol­low­ing its national pol­icy con­fer­ence on Sta­tus of the Artist issues to be held in Regina on Novem­ber 19 and 20.

Con­fer­ence Dead­line Extended

CCA mem­bers, and oth­ers in the cul­tural sec­tor with an inter­est in Sta­tus of the Artist issues, should ensure their atten­dance at CCA’s con­fer­ence From Act to Action ; full details on the con­fer­ence pro­ceed­ings, and the reg­is­tra­tion form, are avail­able at www.ccarts.ca .   The dead­line for reg­is­tra­tions has been extended to Mon­day Novem­ber 8.

PLEASE NOTE

The Abo­rig­i­nal artists’ work­shop on announced in CCA’s Bul­letin 51/04 is a part of the CCA’s two day national pol­icy con­fer­ence, enti­tled From Act to Action: Mov­ing For­ward on Sta­tus of the Artist, being held in Regina on 19 and 20 Novem­ber.   The bur­saries announced in that bul­letin are specif­i­cally intended for Abo­rig­i­nal artists and arts admin­is­tra­tors who are reg­is­ter­ing for the whole con­fer­ence; the bur­sary monies can only be pro­vided fol­low­ing the con­fer­ence, upon pre­sen­ta­tion of orig­i­nal receipts.   Please con­tact James Mis­sen (613 238 3561, ext.14, james.missen@ccarts.ca) for details.