The CCA Publishes its Annual Analysis of the Federal Budget

CCA Bul­letin 25/10

Sep­tem­ber 14, 2010

 

 

Just the Facts

Hav­ing received answers to the ques­tions raised with the gov­ern­ment, the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA) is now pleased to pub­lish its annual Analy­sis of the Fed­eral Bud­get from the per­spec­tive of the arts, cul­ture and cul­tural industries.

The analy­sis of the 2010 bud­get exam­ines fed­eral fund­ing to the Depart­ment of Cana­dian Her­itage, cul­tural agen­cies and Crown Cor­po­ra­tions; orga­ni­za­tional and fund­ing changes within the Depart­ment of Cana­dian Her­itage; fed­eral fund­ing of key pro­grams across the arts, her­itage and cul­tural indus­tries; and other note­wor­thy devel­op­ments affect­ing the sector.

While there is lit­tle in the way of “bad news” in the bud­get – indeed, it is sta­tus quo in the fund­ing of pro­grams and Strate­gic Reviews of the Canada Coun­cil, the CBC, the National Film Board and Tele­film, which did not face any cuts –  all eyes are on next year, and the shape of things to come.

Tell me more

Three main find­ings emerge from this year’s analy­sis. First, over­all fed­eral cul­tural fund­ing remained rel­a­tively sta­ble in Bud­get 2010, with small increases for most cul­tural orga­ni­za­tions. This ‘hold­ing pat­tern’ is reas­sur­ing, as was last summer’s wel­come news that a num­ber of key cul­tural pro­grams were renewed for five years with healthy expen­di­ture lev­els.

Sec­ond, there is legit­i­mate rea­son to fear that this state of affairs may not con­tinue. The eco­nomic reces­sion of 2008/09 and the ongo­ing global eco­nomic insta­bil­ity are gen­er­at­ing uncer­tainty. In the short term, fed­eral expen­di­tures have been frozen, which means that the Depart­ment of Cana­dian Her­itage, Crown Cor­po­ra­tions and Agen­cies must all find the resources needed to pay for increased salaries and oper­a­tional expenses inter­nally. More­over, Strate­gic Reviews – the government’s mech­a­nism of choice to rein in depart­men­tal spend­ing – will now result in hard cuts.

In the long term, the government’s road map to a bal­anced bud­get includes $17.6 bil­lion in expen­di­ture reduc­tions over five years, which will require real spend­ing cuts. For the next cou­ple of years, cul­tural spend­ing through the Depart­ment of Cana­dian Her­itage appears to be rel­a­tively safe: expen­di­ture pro­jec­tions for 2011-12 and 2012–13 show steady lev­els of fund­ing. But, the depart­ment will undergo a Strate­gic Review in 2011-12, which will require a 5% fund­ing cut (some $60 mil­lion) for 2012–13. More­over, fund­ing pro­jec­tions beyond 2012–13 are not known at this time.

Third, adding to this con­cern is the sense that the gov­ern­ment con­tin­ues to approach cul­ture with­out an iden­ti­fied long-term vision or clearly artic­u­lated pol­icy. Lack­ing a clear sense of direc­tion for cul­tural pol­icy, will the sec­tor be espe­cially vul­ner­a­ble in this period of expen­di­ture cut­backs? One remem­bers the last round of bud­get deficit reduc­tions…

In addi­tion to these over­all find­ings, a num­ber of other impor­tant devel­op­ments merit mention:

• The Canada Arts Train­ing Fund Pro­gram (for­merly the National Arts Train­ing Con­tri­bu­tion Pro­gram) received an addi­tional $7 mil­lion in each of 2009/10 and 2010/11 and the pro­gram was renewed in 2009 for a period of five years at an annual fund­ing level of $24.1 million.

• In 2009/10 and 2010/11, the gov­ern­ment made sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to the pri­vate sector-led Cana­dian Museum for Human Rights. In 2009/10, the gov­ern­ment com­mit­ted $26.7 mil­lion to the Museum and expen­di­tures to date in 2010/11 total $55.9 million.

• Fund­ing lev­els to the Cel­e­bra­tion and Com­mem­o­ra­tion Pro­gram, a pro­gram that sup­ports com­mu­nity events for Canada Day, have risen sub­stan­tially over the last num­ber of years, from roughly $2 mil­lion in 2005/06, to $13 mil­lion in 2006/07, $22 mil­lion in 2007/08, $36.3 mil­lion in 2008/09, and $45.7 mil­lion in 2009/10 (includ­ing roughly $20 mil­lion for the 2010 Olympic Games Torch Relay). This year, the program’s fund­ing stands at $11.8 mil­lion in the Main Esti­mates.

• In a some­what wor­ri­some move, the gov­ern­ment made use of Bud­get Bill C-9 to secure pas­sage of major pol­icy changes with­out pub­lic debate, includ­ing relax­ing for­eign invest­ment restric­tions in the satel­lite sec­tor. The CCA has expressed its con­cern to both Stand­ing Com­mit­tees on Her­itage and Indus­try that com­bined with exist­ing and future trade agree­ments, this mea­sure may even­tu­ally restrict the government’s capac­ity to sup­port the pro­duc­tion and avail­abil­ity of Cana­dian cul­tural content.

• Bud­get 2010 announced that self-employed indi­vid­u­als will now have the option of reg­is­ter­ing for the Employ­ment Insur­ance pro­gram to receive mater­nity, parental, sick­ness and com­pas­sion­ate care ben­e­fits. Given the high per­cent­age of self-employment in the cul­tural sec­tor, the change may be of ben­e­fit to some work­ers. For oth­ers, how­ever, the pro­gram may not be advan­ta­geous. If an artist draws on EI ben­e­fits and is not actively cre­at­ing works, any income they receive for past works will reduce the EI ben­e­fit to which they are enti­tled. In addi­tion, once reg­is­tered, work­ers can­not opt out.