The 2009–2010 Federal Stimulus Budget and Culture: More Status Quo than Economic Stimulus

CCA Bul­letin 3/09

Jan­u­ary 27, 2009

 

Just the Facts

Fol­low­ing the Speech from the Throne on Jan­u­ary 26th, mark­ing the open­ing of the sec­ond ses­sion of Canada’s 40th Par­lia­ment, the Fed­eral Stim­u­lus Bud­get was released today by Finance Min­is­ter Fla­herty. Unlike pre­vi­ous bud­get releases, this announce­ment came in the wake of unprece­dented media leaks, lead­ing to nation­wide con­jec­ture on the stim­u­lus fund­ing expected for the arts and cul­ture sector.

On first read, the Stim­u­lus Bud­get appears to hold cul­tural and arts spend­ing at a steady level. The sec­tion des­ig­nated to cul­ture and sport notes that:

“Cul­ture reflects who we are as a nation, how we see our­selves within our coun­try, and how we appear to the world. Day-to-day, Cana­di­ans expe­ri­ence the essence of this rich and diverse coun­try though the imagery and words of its artists, through works which demon­strate the best of tal­ent. While resilient in many ways, the cul­tural sec­tor is plainly also vul­ner­a­ble to eco­nomic shocks. The Gov­ern­ment wants to help ensure as much sta­bil­ity as pos­si­ble for the sec­tor at a time when the sec­tor is fac­ing dif­fi­cult challenges.

Bud­get 2009 pro­vides over $335 mil­lion in sup­port for cul­ture and arts – rec­og­niz­ing the impor­tance of our artis­tic insti­tu­tions and the role they play in Cana­di­ans’ lives. “

Within this head­ing, there are six spe­cific areas of focus for spend­ing:

All in all, these rep­re­sent pretty good news for the Cana­dian arts and cul­ture sec­tor. The major dis­ap­point­ment lies in the fact that the gov­ern­ment seems to have turned a deaf ear to the press­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tions made by the sec­tor con­cern­ing the devel­op­ment of for­eign mar­kets for our cul­tural prod­ucts: it is indeed dis­ap­point­ing to note that no stim­u­lus has been allo­cated for invest­ment in the pro­mo­tion of Cana­dian arts and cul­ture abroad. Trade Routes and Pro­mArt were pro­grams which spe­cial­ized in this area and were cut under the 39th Par­lia­ment. They will end on March 31, 2009.

Tell me more

There are sev­eral other areas in the 2009 Stim­u­lus Bud­get which are of inter­est to the arts, cul­ture and her­itage sec­tor in Canada.

Under the head­ing of Tourism, $100 mil­lion has been des­ig­nated over two years for mar­quee fes­ti­vals and events. Sep­a­rately, $40 mil­lion has been allot­ted to the Cana­dian Tourism Com­mis­sion which will sup­port pro­mo­tional activ­i­ties such as the Van­cou­ver 2010 Win­ter Olympic and Par­a­lympic Games.

Parks Canada will gar­ner $150 mil­lion on a cash basis for improve­ments and enhance­ments to vis­i­tor facil­i­ties, for upgrades to national his­toric sites, as well as national his­toric places owned by not-for-profit groups.

Bud­get 2009 pro­vides $500 mil­lion over two years for recre­ational infra­struc­ture in Canada. This will sup­port con­struc­tion of new com­mu­nity recre­ational facil­i­ties and upgrades to exist­ing facilities.

In order to develop a highly skilled work­force, Bud­get 2009 has increased fund­ing of grant­ing coun­cils, such as the Social Sci­ences and Human­i­ties Research Coun­cil (SSHRC) – which will receive $17.5 mil­lion. These funds will incre­ment the num­ber of doc­toral and mas­ters schol­ar­ships. The Bud­get states that schol­ar­ships granted by SSHRC will be focused on business-related degrees.

Upon their release, the CCA will ana­lyze the Main Esti­mates, which will give us a more com­pre­hen­sive look at the impli­ca­tions of the 2009–2010 Bud­get on pro­grams and ser­vices within the fed­eral gov­ern­ment that ben­e­fit the arts and cul­ture sec­tor. This analy­sis will be fol­lowed by con­fer­ence calls with stakeholders.

And as usual, in the near future, the CCA will pro­duce its annual, more com­pre­hen­sive, analy­sis of the fed­eral bud­get and the host of eco­nomic data that the Depart­ment of Finance has included as back­ground infor­ma­tion to the Bud­get.  To review the entire Bud­get 2009, please click here.