Summer Means… 2009-10 Federal Budget Consultations!

CCA Bul­letin 23/08

July 10, 2008

Just the Facts

The Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Finance has announced it is receiv­ing sub­mis­sions for the 2009-10 fed­eral bud­get con­sul­ta­tions. This is an oppor­tu­nity for the pub­lic to put for­ward rec­om­men­da­tions and other ideas about what the 2009-10 fed­eral bud­get should contain.

The CCA will be releas­ing in a few days its com­pre­hen­sive Analy­sis of the 2008-09 Fed­eral Bud­get, which should help orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­u­als in craft­ing any sub­mis­sion they plan to make to the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Finance.

The CCA has already indi­cated its desire to appear in front of the Com­mit­tee and will be con­sult­ing with its mem­bers on the pre-budget sub­mis­sion in the com­ing weeks.

Tell Me More

Over the next two fis­cal years, a whop­ping 343.2 mil­lion of pro­gram dol­lars at the Depart­ment of Cana­dian Her­itage is up for renewal. The list below is drawn from the Depart­ment of Cana­dian Heritage’s Report on Plans and Pri­or­i­ties. This doc­u­ment, which the CCA addressed in an ear­lier bul­letin, is a com­pre­hen­sive exam­i­na­tion of the activ­i­ties and plans of the Depart­ment. The pro­grams affected are:

• Muse­ums Assis­tance Program
• Book Pub­lish­ing Indus­try Devel­op­ment Program
• Cana­dian Tele­vi­sion Fund
• National Arts Train­ing Con­tri­bu­tion Program
• Cana­dian Arts and Her­itage Sus­tain­abil­ity Program
• Sound Record­ing Indus­try Devel­op­ment Program
• Cul­tural Spaces Canada
• Canada Mag­a­zine Fund
• New Media Fund
• Cana­dian Music Fund
• TV-5 Que­bec –Canada
• Arts, Cul­ture and Diver­sity Program
• Mov­able Cul­tural Prop­erty Fund
• National Train­ing Pro­gram in Film and Video Sector
• Abo­rig­i­nal Peo­ples’ Program
• Enhance­ment of Offi­cial Lan­guages Program
• Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism Program
• Human Rights Program
• Cana­dian Stud­ies Program
• Exchanges Canada
• Kati­mavik

It is unclear at the moment whether this list also includes the $ 25 mil­lion per year to the Canada Coun­cil for the Arts that has been part of the fund­ing enve­lope for­merly known as Tomor­row Starts Today.

It should be noted that the Depart­ment has expressed its intent to seek the renewal of most of these pro­grams. How­ever, the Depart­ment has only said that it may seek renewal for the fol­low­ing Tomor­row Starts Today pro­grams: the Book Pub­lish­ing Indus­try Devel­op­ment Pro­gram and the National Arts Train­ing Con­tri­bu­tion Program.

These com­mit­ments to renew pro­grams must not be viewed as guar­an­tees. The ulti­mate deci­sion regard­ing the future of each pro­gram is deter­mined by Trea­sury Board and Cab­i­net. The gov­ern­ment can reverse its inten­tions at a moment’s notice. For exam­ple, this year’s Report on Plans and Pri­or­i­ties indi­cated that the Depart­ment would seek renewal of the Cana­dian Cul­ture On-line Pro­gram, which, as Bud­get 2008 announced, has been com­pletely cut off by the government.

Nonethe­less, it is clear that the Depart­ment will be very busy prepar­ing for such a mas­sive pro­gram renewal process. Each pro­gram up for renewal will have under­gone a sum­ma­tive eval­u­a­tion process which deter­mines if the objec­tives for the cre­ation the pro­gram were met. These objec­tives were laid out in the for­ma­tive eval­u­a­tion process when the pro­gram was first created.

The Depart­ment can seek addi­tional resources, amend cri­te­ria or rec­om­mend a re-profiling of the struc­ture of pro­grams in its sub­mis­sion to Trea­sury Board.

The sig­nif­i­cant dol­lar value of the pro­grams up for renewal rep­re­sents a major invest­ment in the finan­cial sta­bil­ity of the arts and cul­ture sec­tor. The CCA has asked to appear in front of the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Finance and will be encour­ag­ing it to rec­om­mend the expe­di­tious renewal of these pro­grams to ensure con­ti­nu­ity in the growth and sus­te­nance of the arts and cul­ture sector.

What Can I Do?

Indi­vid­u­als and orga­ni­za­tions have until July 31st to indi­cate to the Committee’s Clerk that they want to appear and until August 15th to sub­mit their brief.

A new twist this year: briefs must be lim­ited to five pages max­i­mum and three to five pri­or­i­ties are now con­sid­ered too many as inter­ven­ers are strongly invited to limit them­selves to one recommendation!

“Briefs should be no longer than five pages in length, should include an exec­u­tive sum­mary, and should con­tain only one rec­om­men­da­tion that reflects your most impor­tant fed­eral pro­gram spend­ing or tax­a­tion pri­or­ity. In the event that briefs con­tain more than one rec­om­men­da­tion, only the first one will be con­sid­ered by the Com­mit­tee.”

If you or your orga­ni­za­tion would like to com­ment on “one pri­or­ity” you would like to see included in the CCA pre-budget sub­mis­sion please con­tact us as soon as possible.

If on the other hand you wish to con­tribute to the 2009-10 fed­eral bud­get con­sul­ta­tions by the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Finance, the details regard­ing the process can be found here. The CCA would appre­ci­ate receiv­ing a copy of your sub­mis­sion to the Stand­ing Committee.