The CCA urges the new Government of Canada to strengthen our arts and culture on national and international fronts

CCA Bul­letin 6/06

Jan­u­ary 24, 2006

The Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA) con­grat­u­lates all new andreturn­ing Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment for their elec­tion to the 39th Par­lia­ment of Canada, and wel­comes­the new gov­ern­ment cho­sen by Cana­di­ans.  As an impor­tant first order of busi­ness for the cul­tur­al­sec­tor, the CCA asks the new gov­ern­ment to hon­our the planned increase to the bud­get of the Canada Coun­cil for the Arts announced last Novem­ber 23.

“Increas­ing the Canada Council’s bud­get by $150 mil­lion over three years was not a mere pre­elec­tion promise”, says Alain Pineau, CCA National Direc­tor. “This deci­sion  has received the­sup­port in the last Par­lia­ment from MPs of all polit­i­cal par­ties, includ­ing the Con­ser­v­a­tive cul­ture­critic Bev Oda. It has received Cab­i­net approval to go to Trea­sury Board before elec­tion call. Nowthat this much needed increase is finally in the gov­ern­men­tal machine, with iden­ti­fied financ­ing, itwould clearly require a con­scious deci­sion of the new gov­ern­ment to revoke or delay it.”

This long-overdue invest­ment in the Cana­dian cul­tural sec­tor has been the object of numer­ous­Fi­nance Com­mit­tee pre­sen­ta­tions on the part of the Cana­dian busi­ness and cul­tural sec­tors.  “Therewill be ample time to review processes and pro­grams,” Pineau adds, “but given its cru­cialimpor­tance to sup­port­ing Cana­dian cre­ativ­ity and given the rel­a­tively small amount involved in the­first of a well-thought out three year process, we urge the Con­ser­v­a­tive gov­ern­ment to con­firm thep­re­vi­ous Government’s decision.”

The CCA notes that the new Con­ser­v­a­tive gov­ern­ment has been elected pre­cisely at a time when itis imper­a­tive to assess the national pol­icy frame­work of the cul­tural sec­tor at large.  Impor­tan­ta­spects of this pol­icy frame­work have been put in place by pre­vi­ous fed­eral Con­ser­v­a­tive­g­ov­ern­ments, which enacted sta­tus of the artist leg­is­la­tion, ini­ti­ated revi­sions to the Copy­right Act,and estab­lished a series of task forces and other leg­isla­tive ini­tia­tives in sup­port of the arts and­cul­tural industries.

The CCA wants to work closely with the new gov­ern­ment to help refo­cus and frame 21st cen­tu­ryCana­dian cul­tural poli­cies to face cur­rent tech­no­log­i­cal and inter­na­tional trade chal­lenges. “In the­last Par­lia­ment, the CCA worked con­struc­tively with Con­ser­v­a­tive Her­itage critic Bev Oda” saysPineau, “and we are sure that what­ever role she may play in the next gov­ern­ment, herun­der­stand­ing of the sec­tor will pro­vide guid­ance to her col­leagues on the gov­ern­ment side of the House”.

Other imme­di­ate pri­or­i­ties the CCA will ask the new gov­ern­ment to address include:

- Restor­ing arts and cul­ture as the “third pil­lar” of Canada’s inter­na­tional diplo­macy and addad­di­tional finan­cial resources to For­eign Affairs in sup­port of this sector.

- Devel­op­ing clear poli­cies to ensure the fair tax treat­ment of artists by the Canada Rev­enueAgency, includ­ing improved tax exemp­tions, income aver­ag­ing, and access to social ben­e­fitswith­out jeop­ar­diz­ing the sta­tus of self-employed contractors.

- Main­tain­ing poli­cies that pro­tect exist­ing Cana­dian own­er­ship of our media and cul­tur­alin­dus­tries; restrict­ing both for­eign own­er­ship and the con­cen­tra­tion of own­er­ship in the cul­tur­alin­dus­tries; and strength­en­ing domes­tic cul­tural expres­sions with poli­cies that encour­age Cana­di­an­in­vest­ment in the cul­tural industries.

- Increas­ing fund­ing to the CBC on a multi-year basis and uphold­ing the cul­tural objec­tives of the­Broad­cast­ing Act in the 21st Century.

- Revis­ing the Copy­right Act to enhance the moral and eco­nomic rights of cre­ators and copy­rightown­ers and licensees.

- Intro­duc­ing a new fed­eral muse­ums pol­icy, which would include the invest­ment of new­monies in sus­tained, multi-year, pre­dictable programs.

The Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the arts is the country’s largest assem­bly of indi­vid­u­als andor­ga­ni­za­tions engaged in arts and cul­tural issues, whose com­bined num­bers rep­re­sent close to aquar­ter of a mil­lion Cana­di­ans. As a non-partisan orga­ni­za­tion that strives to con­tribute to the­unique char­ac­ter of Cana­dian soci­ety in the cul­tural sec­tor, the CCA will work closely with allpo­lit­i­cal par­ties and MPs rep­re­sented in the new House.  The CCA’s mis­sion is to con­tribute to a clear-headed debate about Cana­dian arts and culture,and how best to make our artists and cul­tural insti­tu­tions and busi­ness thrive for the ben­e­fit ofall Cana­di­ans. As part of deliv­er­ing this mis­sion, the CCA is orga­niz­ing an impor­tant­con­fer­ence to map the cur­rent fed­eral cul­tural pol­icy envi­ron­ment and estab­lish actions plans­for the future, which is sched­uled for March 2–4 2006 in Ottawa.