GETTING THE MESSAGE OUT: 2004 Pre-Budget consultations

Ottawa , June 2nd 2004 — The Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Finance has released infor­ma­tion about this year’s pub­lic hear­ings for the 2004 pre-Budget consultations.

The ques­tions for this year’s con­sul­ta­tions are

• Is ongo­ing expen­di­ture review a use­ful exercise?
• What should be the pro­gram spend­ing, tax­a­tion and other pri­or­i­ties of the fed­eral gov­ern­ment in the next Budget?
• What is(are) the esti­mated cost(s) of your proposal(s)?
• If pro­gram spend­ing reduc­tions and/or tax changes were required to finance the cost of your proposal(s), which pro­grams should have their fund­ing reduced and/or what tax changes would you suggest?

These themes depart from the usual ques­tions posed in advance of the con­sul­ta­tions, and are con­sid­er­ably more detailed than in past years.   Bul­let 3, in par­tic­u­lar, requires the exper­tise of an econ­o­mist in order to make a com­plete sub­mis­sion, some­thing that is beyond the reach of most non-profit organizations.

How­ever, CCA con­tacted the Clerk’s office and has been assured that this is not a pre-requisite.   No orga­ni­za­tion will be pre­vented from mak­ing a pre­sen­ta­tion due to lack of said expertise.

It is inter­est­ing to note that only the sec­ond bul­let is sim­i­lar to con­sul­ta­tions car­ried out in past years.   The first bul­let seems to act as a poll on the pre­vi­ous government’s plan to con­tinue expen­di­ture review in per­pe­tu­ity, and the final two are, in effect, doing the government’s work for it.

CCA will be plan­ning its pre-Budget sub­mis­sion over the sum­mer months, and invites its mem­bers to also sub­mit on behalf of their con­stituents.   The more fre­quently the Com­mit­tee hears about the lack of fund­ing in the cul­tural sec­tor, and of the dif­fi­cul­ties of mak­ing a liv­ing as an artist, the bet­ter .   We would also wel­come groups who might want to orga­nize their pre­sen­ta­tions to coin­cide with the CCA ‘s.

CCA also invites all mem­bers to send in their sug­ges­tions and com­ments for inclu­sion   in our sub­mis­sion.   Please con­tact Philippa Bor­gal at (613) 238 3561 ext.19 ( philippa.borgal@ccarts.ca ) before the end of June.

Sched­ule for consultations:

Ottawa Mon­day Sep­tem­ber 27 — Fri­day Octo­ber 8 and Mon­day Novem­ber 1 — Fri­day Novem­ber 5

Vic­to­ria Mon­day Octo­ber 18 and Tues­day Octo­ber 19

Cal­gary Wednes­day Octo­ber 20

Saska­toon Thurs­day Octo­ber 31 (NB: Town Hall pub­lic meet­ing in the morning)

Win­nipeg Fri­day Octo­ber 22

St John ‘s Mon­day Octo­ber 25 (NB: Town Hall pub­lic meet­ing in the morning)

Fred­er­ic­ton Tues­day Octo­ber 26

Mon­treal Wednes­day Octo­ber 27

Toronto Thurs­day Octo­ber 28 and Fri­day Octo­ber 29

(The two Town Hall pub­lic meet­ings are pilot projects; fur­ther details will be avail­able in due course.   The Town Hall pro­ceed­ings will be tele­vised on CPAC.)

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion on the con­sul­ta­tions, con­tact Richard Dupuis, Clerk of the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Finance at 613 992 9753, or check for infor­ma­tion on www.parl.gc.ca/FINA-e .

HELL AND HIGH WATER

The Cana­dian Cen­tre for Pol­icy Alter­na­tives has pub­lished a record of Paul Martin’s poli­cies to date, enti­tled HELL AND HIGH WATER: An Assess­ment of Paul Martin’s Record and Impli­ca­tions for the Future .   Pro­duced as part of the Alter­na­tive Fed­eral Bud­get 2004 ini­tia­tive (of which CCA was a par­tic­i­pant), this book could assist mem­bers when weigh­ing their elec­tion alter­na­tives.   The book is avail­able from www.policyalternatives.ca at a cost of $19.95 per copy; there is a 40% dis­count for orders of 15 or more.

New appoint­ment

Don Stephen­son, who has been the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary to the Cab­i­net in the Privy Coun­cil Office for the past 2 years, has just been appointed Canada ‘s Ambas­sador to the World Trade Orga­ni­za­tion.   Mr Stephen­son will suc­ceed Ser­gio Marchi who cur­rently occu­pies the post in Geneva .   Char­ac­ter­iz­ing him­self as a friend to the arts, Don Stephen­son has held posi­tions with DFAIT and Cana­dian Her­itage. CCA and INCD st af f will dis­cuss the issues of trade and cul­ture with Mr Stephen­son before he leaves for Europe .

Mov­ing On

The Greater Van­cou­ver Alliance for Arts and Cul­ture announced last week that they are bid­ding a fond farewell to their Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Lori Bax­ter . Ms. Bax­ter, an active mem­ber of the CCA ‘s Board of Gov­er­nors, is leav­ing to work on the arts com­po­nent of the non-profit soci­ety 2010 Lega­cies­Now, an ini­tia­tive orga­nized in con­junc­tion with the 2010 Vancouver-Whistler Olympic Games. Good luck Lori!