Municipal leaders urge Feds to renew Tomorrow Starts Today

Ottawa , Sep­tem­ber 24 th , 2004 — Munic­i­pal politi­cians are throw­ing their sup­port behind a long-term and sus­tained renewal of Canada ‘s most sig­nif­i­cant cul­tural fund­ing program.

The Fed­er­a­tion of Cana­dian Munic­i­pal­i­ties (FCM), the voice of Canada ‘s cities on fed­eral pol­icy, has made a sig­nif­i­cant dec­la­ra­tion in sup­port of mean­ing­ful, long-term invest­ment in the arts. At the Sep­tem­ber 10, 2004 meet­ing of the FCM’s Board of Direc­tors, a res­o­lu­tion was passed “strongly urg(ing) the fed­eral gov­ern­ment to renew the multi-year Tomor­row Starts Today fund­ing initiative.”

“Sup­port for arts, cul­ture and her­itage is a major com­po­nent of our pol­icy,” said Erin Mur­phy, Pol­icy Ana­lyst for the FCM. “The Tomor­row Starts Today pro­gram includes pro­vi­sions to help com­mu­ni­ties develop and sus­tain arts and her­itage pro­grams rel­e­vant to their aspi­ra­tions and cir­cum­stances, and to enhance access to the arts for all Cana­di­ans through arts cel­e­bra­tions, fes­ti­vals, and sup­port for arts pre­sen­ters.  We will con­tinue to advo­cate the renewal of this pro­gram and increased fund­ing and sup­port for arts, cul­tural and her­itage facil­i­ties and pro­gram­ming in com­mu­ni­ties across Canada .”

The res­o­lu­tion, put forth jointly by the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the cities of Van­cou­ver , North Van­cou­ver and Can­more , Alberta , reads as follows:

WHEREAS the ini­tia­tives sup­ported by the Gov­ern­ment of Canada’s Tomor­row Starts Today $560 mil­lion cul­tural invest­ment, announced in May 2001, reached into com­mu­ni­ties across the coun­try; con­tributed sig­nif­i­cantly to the qual­ity of life of Cana­di­ans; and reaf­firmed the impor­tance of cul­ture and cre­ativ­ity in Canada; and

WHEREAS Tomor­row Starts Today embraced the diver­sity of Cana­dian voices and allowed for the emer­gence of the best arts, cul­tural and her­itage offer­ings in munic­i­pal­i­ties of all sizes across the nation; and

WHEREAS more than 100 com­mu­ni­ties in Canada, from large urban cen­tres to small and remote com­mu­ni­ties, ben­e­fited from improved infra­struc­ture that builds cul­tural capac­ity, while 225 com­mu­ni­ties have had access to arts and cul­tural fes­ti­vals of the high­est qual­ity through Tomor­row Starts Today invest­ments; and

WHEREAS Tomor­row Starts Today dou­bled the num­ber of arts train­ing insti­tu­tions sup­ported, with most of the new insti­tu­tions offer­ing train­ing in Abo­rig­i­nal arts and in arts related to Canada’s diverse com­mu­ni­ties and their artis­tic tra­di­tions; and

WHEREAS the lack of timely deci­sions to renew the Tomor­row Starts Today fund­ing would put at risk thou­sands of projects in hun­dreds of com­mu­ni­ties; would adversely affect employ­ment in the arts, cul­tural and her­itage sec­tors across the coun­try; and would reduce Cana­di­ans’ access to their culture;

BE IT RESOLVED that the Fed­er­a­tion of Cana­dian Munic­i­pal­i­ties strongly urge the Gov­ern­ment of Canada to renew the multi-year Tomor­row Starts Today fund­ing ini­tia­tive, so as to con­tinue this impor­tant cul­tural invest­ment for the social and eco­nomic devel­op­ment of Cana­dian cities and communities.

This artic­u­la­tion of sup­port from out­side the cul­tural sec­tor pro­vides a con­sid­er­able momen­tum for those within the sec­tor mak­ing the push to have this fund­ing renewed. It shows an under­stand­ing on the part of at least one level of gov­ern­ment of the impor­tant role cul­tural activ­i­ties play in the lives of Canadians.

In a Sep­tem­ber 23 speech kick­ing off Toronto ‘s Arts Week, Toronto Mayor David Miller spoke pas­sion­ately of the cul­tural sector’s importance.

“There are too many peo­ple who seem to con­sider the arts to be a lux­ury – or worse, an after­thought,” Mayor Miller said. “There’s a pal­pa­ble short­age of money, of per­for­mance venues, and of sup­port­ive infra­struc­ture for Toronto ‘s artists. This is unacceptable.”

“If we don’t sup­port the city’s arts scene, we fun­da­men­tally dam­age the whole city.”

What now?

It is cru­cial that mem­bers of the arts and cul­ture com­mu­nity build on this demon­stra­tion of sup­port. With Par­lia­ment recon­ven­ing and deci­sions about Tomor­row Starts Today weav­ing their way through the new Cab­i­net approval process, it is vital to the future of the sec­tor that MPs and mem­bers of the Cab­i­net under­stand how crit­i­cal this invest­ment is to arts groups, both large and small.

For more infor­ma­tion on how you can con­vey your opin­ions, see the Advo­cacy Alert on the CCA web­site. http://ccarts.ca/en/advocacyalert.htm

The CCA’s Pre-Budget Sub­mis­sion, “THE ARTIST IS AT THE CENTRE OF EVERYTHING” (a direct quote from the new Min­is­ter of Cana­dian Her­itage Liza Frulla), strongly rec­om­mends that the Fed­eral Gov­ern­ment “renew its invest­ment in the cul­tural sec­tor and that it ensure there is ade­quate, sta­ble, multi-year fund­ing for the future so that cul­tural insti­tu­tions and agen­cies, in all their diver­sity, are able to improve their sta­bil­ity, sus­tain­abil­ity, and capac­ity build­ing abil­i­ties.” The full text of the Pre-Budget Sub­mis­sion will be avail­able on our web­site at the begin­ning of next week.