The CCA in front of the Finance Committee: First priority, market development!

CCA Bul­letin 23/09

Sep­tem­ber 21, 2009

 

Just the facts

Last Thurs­day, the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA) appeared in front of the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Finance to present and defend its 2010 pre-budget sub­mis­sion.

The rules guid­ing the sub­mis­sions to this annual con­sul­ta­tion are quite restric­tive, with each brief lim­ited to five pages, com­pris­ing no more than three rec­om­men­da­tions. Given the unique breadth of the CCA man­date, in our writ­ten sub­mis­sion, we grouped a series of spe­cific rec­om­men­da­tions under three broad head­ings. In oral pre­sen­ta­tions in front of the Com­mit­tee, wit­nesses are lim­ited to a five minute pre­sen­ta­tion, as are Com­mit­tee mem­bers with their ques­tions, so only the most impor­tant ele­ments of our sub­mis­sion were high­lighted.  We were part of a panel of eight orga­ni­za­tions which included only one other cul­tural group, the Alliance of Cana­dian Cin­ema, Tele­vi­sion and Radio Artists (ACTRA). It is fair to say that CCA’s pre­sen­ta­tion caught the atten­tion of com­mit­tee mem­bers and pro­voked some ques­tions. The fol­low­ing is a brief look at the CCA’s presentation.

Tell me more

Invest­ing in mar­ket devel­op­ment and in cul­tural diplomacy

Canada is blessed with a very high pro­por­tion of artists, cre­ators, cul­tural insti­tu­tions, and indus­tries, but is greatly hand­i­capped by its small inter­nal mar­ket and immense ter­ri­tory. In order to sur­vive and flour­ish, our cul­tural sec­tor must develop mar­kets both inter­nally and exter­nally. Despite sev­eral small inter­na­tional pro­grams within the Cana­dian Her­itage port­fo­lio agen­cies, there is cur­rently no coor­di­nated pan-governmental strat­egy for the pro­mo­tion of Cana­dian artists and cul­tural works to national and inter­na­tional audi­ences and markets.

Accord­ingly, the CCA rec­om­mends that the fed­eral gov­ern­ment invest an addi­tional $ 40 mil­lion per year into the expan­sion of the capac­ity of the Canada Coun­cil for the Arts to increase its capac­ity to sup­port mar­ket devel­op­ment both at home and abroad. As well, the CCA encour­ages the Depart­ment of For­eign Affairs and Inter­na­tional Trade to col­lab­o­rate with the Canada Coun­cil for the Arts on its cul­tural ini­tia­tives abroad. The inte­gra­tion of a diplo­matic strat­egy pri­or­i­tiz­ing cul­tural rela­tions and trade would yield both eco­nomic and diplo­matic ben­e­fits for Canada.

Given the impor­tance of invest­ing in artists and cre­ators who are at the van­guard of the cre­ative econ­omy, the CCA also invites the Com­mit­tee to rec­om­mend to the Min­is­ter of Finance that the 2010 fed­eral bud­get make an addi­tional recur­rent increase of $ 20 mil­lion a year to the Canada Coun­cil base bud­get for a period of four years start­ing in 2011, with a view to even­tu­ally mak­ing its annual bud­get reach $300 mil­lion by 2014. Finally, the CCA urges that the Coun­cil be allowed to keep the $ 9 mil­lion it has been asked to iden­tify for redi­rec­tions through the cur­rent Strate­gic Review.

The pub­lic broadcaster

The CCA sup­ports the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Heritage’s rec­om­men­da­tion that the Gov­ern­ment estab­lish a long-term Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing with the CBC. The Com­mit­tee fur­ther states that the addi­tional $ 60 mil­lion the CBC has received annu­ally since 2002 be per­ma­nently added to the Corporation’s base bud­get and that “its core fund­ing be increased to an amount equiv­a­lent to at least $ 40 per capita.”

The CCA strongly urged the Com­mit­tee to rec­om­mend to the Gov­ern­ment that the CBC be allowed to keep the $ 50 mil­lion it was asked to iden­tify as part of this year’s Strate­gic Review, a rec­om­men­da­tion which the CCA also extends to the National Film Board.

Pro­vid­ing the sec­tor with the tools it needs

All sec­tors of the econ­omy and the gov­ern­ment need reli­able and com­pa­ra­ble sta­tis­tics in order to develop poli­cies and eval­u­ate their impact.  In the new post-industrial econ­omy, it is of utmost impor­tance both for the cul­tural sec­tor and for the gov­ern­ment to have access to timely and reli­able data on labour mar­kets, export activ­ity, new forms of cul­tural activ­ity, and con­tri­bu­tion to the qual­ity of life of Canadians.

The CCA rec­om­mends that the gov­ern­ment allo­cate to Sta­tis­tics Canada and to the Depart­ment of Cana­dian Her­itage a min­i­mum of $1 mil­lion a year to pro­vide the cul­tural sec­tor with the basic infor­ma­tion required for its devel­op­ment and for the assess­ment of pro­grams sup­port­ing it.

Invest­ing in infrastructure

Much of the cul­tural infra­struc­ture built around Canada’s 1967 cen­ten­nial cel­e­bra­tion is in need of repair and upgrad­ing. Cul­tural spaces within Canada often have uneven dis­tri­b­u­tion within com­mu­ni­ties, result­ing in a lack of afford­able and sus­tain­able rental spaces in many regions of the coun­try. It would be fit­ting to mark Canada’s 150th anniver­sary by address­ing this issue.

The CCA sup­ports the rec­om­men­da­tion of the Cre­ative Cities Net­work for the cre­ation of a spe­cial multi-year cap­i­tal pro­gram to address the huge deficit in fund­ing for cul­tural and recre­ational facil­i­ties across Canada.

While the CCA rejoices in the fact that the gov­ern­ment recently renewed the Canada Cul­tural Spaces Fund for five years, with a one-time increase of $ 30 mil­lion this year, we sub­mit that the annual base bud­get of $ 30 mil­lion is grossly inad­e­quate given the estab­lished needs for invest­ment in cul­tural infra­struc­ture. We press the gov­ern­ment to raise the base bud­get for the Cul­tural Spaces Fund to $60 mil­lion annu­ally.

Pre­serv­ing our heritage

As we plan for sus­tain­able growth for our econ­omy, envi­ron­ment, and our indus­tries, so too must we do for our national her­itage. Over the years, the CCA has called for a renewed National Museum Pol­icy, not only for pre­dictable fund­ing, but for also a firm pol­icy com­mit­ment to pro­tect and project our national her­itage to Cana­di­ans and for­eign visitors.

Despite the broad con­sen­sus achieved in 2005 on this front between all polit­i­cal par­ties, the past three years have seen sig­nif­i­cant cuts made to the museum community.

Accord­ingly, the CCA renews its rec­om­men­da­tion that the gov­ern­ment com­mit $50 mil­lion to imple­ment a long over­due national museum pol­icy.

What can I do?

Don’t miss an oppor­tu­nity to press these points with fed­eral politi­cians either in meet­ings or by send­ing them an email. Do not hes­i­tate to com­mu­ni­cate with us if you require assis­tance info@ccarts.ca