PRE-BUDGET CONSULTATIONS ON HOLD

Ottawa , July 13 th , 2004 — The lat­est rumours indi­cate that the new Par­lia­ment will not sit until early Octo­ber.   This means that the cur­rent ten­ta­tive sched­ule for pre-Budget sub­mis­sions has been thrown out the win­dow.   Accord­ing to the Clerk of the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Finance, Richard Dupuis, the Stand­ing Order under which the com­mit­tee cur­rently oper­ates (83.1) requires the com­mit­tee to present its rec­om­men­da­tions to the Min­is­ter of Finance at the end of Novem­ber, which means pre-budget con­sul­ta­tions (nor­mally last­ing for 5–6 weeks) would have to be held beforehand.

How­ever, there is no require­ment for a gov­ern­ment to bring down a bud­get in Feb­ru­ary, and a close source indi­cated a minor­ity gov­ern­ment might wish to delay a bud­get by a few months.   In any event, no deci­sion regard­ing the pre-Budget con­sul­ta­tions can be made until after the Prime Min­is­ter announces his Cab­i­net, expected at the end of this week.   Once it is avail­able, infor­ma­tion on the new sched­ule will be posted on the committee’s web page at www.parl.gc.ca/FINA-e .

Despite the delay in the pre-Budget con­sul­ta­tions, CCA has begun draft­ing its own sub­mis­sion to the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Finance (see CCA bul­letin #26/04, Get­ting the Mes­sage Out ).

The submission’s main rec­om­men­da­tions will be

• A return to income back-averaging for self-employed work­ers in gen­eral, and artists in particular.
• An income tax exemp­tion for copy­right income sim­i­lar to that which exists in Que­bec .
• Improved incen­tives for char­i­ta­ble giving.

CCA will con­tinue to push for deci­sive action to improve the finan­cial sit­u­a­tion for artists and cul­tural orga­ni­za­tions.   This year’s sub­mis­sion will be crafted around the book­let by Sil­ver Don­ald Cameron ( The Art of Devel­op­ment and the Devel­op­ment of Art: A Pow­er­ful Part­ner­ship – Busi­ness, Com­mu­nity and the Arts ), recently pub­lished by the CCA in part­ner­ship with the Com­mu­nity Eco­nomic Devel­op­ment Tech­ni­cal Assis­tance Pro­gram*.   It will empha­sise that sta­ble, ade­quate, multi-year gov­ern­ment sup­port, in the form of a renewal and increase of the Tomor­row Starts Today (or equiv­a­lent) fund­ing, is essen­tial for a healthy cul­tural sector.

If you have thoughts, com­ments or sug­ges­tions to add to CCA’s sub­mis­sion, please for­ward them to Philippa Bor­gal ( philippa.borgal@ccarts.ca ) or James Mis­sen ( james.missen@ccarts.ca ) by the end of July.

In addi­tion, CCA urges its mem­bers, espe­cially arts ser­vice orga­ni­za­tions, to make their own writ­ten sub­mis­sions — the more voices the Finance Com­mit­tee hears from the cul­tural com­mu­nity, the stronger the mes­sage.   If any group wishes to join CCA in Ottawa to make its pre­sen­ta­tion, please con­tact James Mis­sen at 613 238 3561 ext.14, as soon as pos­si­ble.   (While we have made such requests in the past, we cau­tion that the Com­mit­tee Clerk is not always able to accom­mo­date them.)

There seems to be lit­tle con­sen­sus as to how gov­ern­ment will func­tion in a minor­ity sit­u­a­tion.   Some see a much stronger role for MPs and for par­lia­men­tary com­mit­tees, while oth­ers believe the real power will be con­sol­i­dated within the Privy Coun­cil Office.   A for­mer PCO Clerk was quoted as say­ing that “top civil ser­vants will have big­ger work­loads, expe­ri­ence more frus­tra­tion on the job, and need the patience of angels to get through most days”, a sen­ti­ment reit­er­ated by a recent arti­cle in the Toronto Star ( Tough times in the civil ser­vice by Gra­ham Fraser, 12 July 2004).

Minor­ity gov­ern­ments tend to stay away from mak­ing con­tro­ver­sial deci­sions, or tak­ing action which might rock the boat result­ing in a vote of non-confidence.   There will undoubt­edly be another elec­tion within two years, and all par­ties have depleted funds at present, so sta­bil­ity (which might be seen as stag­na­tion by some) is pos­si­ble for the imme­di­ate future.

*The book, avail­able in Eng­lish and in French, is avail­able from the CCA.