CCA Bul­letin 36/07

Novem­ber 20, 2007

• The Gov­ern­ment of Canada Launches a National Com­pe­ti­tion to Deter­mine the Loca­tion of the Future Por­trait Gallery of Canada
• A New Inter­na­tional Orga­ni­za­tion is Formed: the Inter­na­tional Fed­er­a­tion of Coali­tions for Cul­tural Diver­sity (IFCCD)
• The CCA Writes to the Hon­ourable Jim Pren­tice, Min­is­ter of Industry
• Good News for Festivals
• Fed­eral Sub­si­dies and Con­tri­bu­tion Agree­ments: Where Do Things Stand?

The Gov­ern­ment of Canada Launches a National Com­pe­ti­tion to Deter­mine the Loca­tion of the Future Por­trait Gallery of Canada

On Novem­ber 9, 2007, the Hon­ourable Josée Verner, Min­is­ter of Cana­dian Her­itage and the Hon­ourable Michael Fortier, Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Works and Gov­ern­ment Ser­vices, announced that the Gov­ern­ment of Canada was launch­ing a Request for Pro­pos­als to deter­mine where the future Por­trait Gallery of Canada will be built. This Request is addressed to all pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tor pre­sen­ters in the fol­low­ing nine cities: Hal­i­fax, Que­bec City, Mon­treal, Ottawa-Gatineau, Toronto, Win­nipeg, Edmon­ton, Cal­gary and Van­cou­ver. These cities were selected because they have large pop­u­la­tions and effi­cient tran­sit net­works, and are likely to attract for­eign visitors.

This announce­ment clearly marks the death of the pre­vi­ous plan involv­ing the con­ver­sion of the for­mer Amer­i­can embassy, across the street from the Par­lia­ment Build­ings, a plan on which over 11 mil­lion dol­lars has already been spent.  We note as well the aborted plan to build the Por­trait Gallery in Cal­gary, with fund­ing from the pri­vate sec­tor. The cur­rent call for ten­ders marks a clear turn­ing point in gov­ern­ment pol­icy con­cern­ing national insti­tu­tions, one already evi­dent in last year’s announce­ment of the Cana­dian Museum for Human Rights in Win­nipeg, based as well on the idea of part­ner­ships between the gov­ern­ment and the pri­vate sec­tor and of decen­tral­iza­tion away from the National Cap­i­tal. Ms. Verner, expressed her desire to cir­cu­late the new Gallery’s col­lec­tion, so that as many Cana­di­ans as pos­si­ble can see the faces which have made their mark on Cana­dian his­tory. This new pol­icy direc­tion is elic­it­ing both favourable and crit­i­cal reaction.

The gov­ern­ment hopes to make the announce­ment con­cern­ing the new site of the Por­trait Gallery of Canada next spring, which leaves lit­tle time for pre­sen­ters to find part­ners for such a project. Accord­ing to the government’s time­line, this new cul­tural instal­la­tion should wel­come its first vis­i­tors dur­ing the 2011–2012 season.

A New Inter­na­tional Orga­ni­za­tion is Formed: the Inter­na­tional Fed­er­a­tion of Coali­tions for Cul­tural Diver­sity (IFCCD)

On Sep­tem­ber 19, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of 37 national coali­tions favour­ing cul­tural diver­sity meet­ing in Seville, Spain, formed the Inter­na­tional Fed­er­a­tion of Coali­tions for Cul­tural Diver­sity (IFCCD). The Fed­er­a­tion will take over from the Inter­na­tional Liai­son Com­mit­tee of Coali­tions for Cul­tural Diver­sity (ILC-CCD), which has coor­di­nated and pro­vided sup­port for the work of var­i­ous national groups since 2003, and has liaised with UNESCO and with the Inter­na­tional Net­work on Cul­tural Pol­icy (INCP).

Orga­nized through the efforts of the Span­ish Coali­tion, the found­ing con­ven­tion was an oppor­tu­nity to set out the struc­ture of the Fed­er­a­tion. A ten-person Board of Direc­tors was cho­sen, chaired by Ras­mane Oue­draogo, pres­i­dent of the Burk­ina Faso Coali­tion. The Fed­er­a­tion will be incor­po­rated in Canada, its head­quar­ters will be in Mon­treal, and its Sec­re­tary Gen­eral will be Jim McKee, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of Canada’s Coali­tion for Cul­tural Diver­sity. Solange Drouin, co-chair of the CCD, was elected trea­surer. The French Coali­tion will serve as the Federation’s rep­re­sen­ta­tive to UNESCO.

In the clos­ing dec­la­ra­tion of the Seville meet­ing, the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the par­tic­i­pat­ing coali­tions set out the man­date of the new Fed­er­a­tion.  For exam­ple, the IFCCD will sup­port coun­tries’ rat­i­fi­ca­tion of the Con­ven­tion on the Pro­tec­tion and Pro­mo­tion of the Diver­sity of Cul­tural Expres­sions, so as to reach the goal of rat­i­fi­ca­tion by 150 coun­tries by 2010, in par­tic­u­lar, by those coun­tries from under-represented areas (Asia, the Mid­dle East, Africa).  As well, the Fed­er­a­tion will sup­port the cre­ation of new national coali­tions, and will work to speed up the imple­men­ta­tion of the Convention.

The CCA Writes to the Hon­ourable Jim Pren­tice, Min­is­ter of Industry

On Octo­ber 29, the CCA sent a let­ter to the Hon­ourable Jim Pren­tice, Min­is­ter of Indus­try, urg­ing him to use his dis­cre­tionary pow­ers to assure that Sta­tis­tics Canada’s Sur­vey on Giv­ing, Vol­un­teer­ing and Par­tic­i­pat­ing be con­tin­ued. This sur­vey, con­ducted in its present form since 2001, pro­vides an indi­ca­tion of the dol­lar value of all dona­tions and of the time given by cit­i­zens to non-profit and char­i­ta­ble orga­ni­za­tions. The sur­vey, and the bud­get asso­ci­ated with it, are now at risk as a result of bud­getary adjust­ments tak­ing place at Sta­tis­tics Canada.

The CCA let­ter notes that the arts and cul­tural sec­tors pro­vide a liveli­hood for over 600 000 Cana­di­ans, many of whom work for non-profit orga­ni­za­tions. In many cases, these orga­ni­za­tions are heav­ily depen­dent on the work of vol­un­teers and on income from dona­tions. The infor­ma­tion pro­vided by the Sta­tis­tics Canada sur­vey is, there­fore, of great impor­tance to many orga­ni­za­tions in the arts and cul­tural sec­tors (and in other sec­tors), which rely on it as a yard­stick to eval­u­ate their fundrais­ing efforts among pri­vate donors, as well as their audi­ence growth.

Good News for Festivals

On Sep­tem­ber 12, 2007, the Min­is­ter of Cana­dian Her­itage, the Hon­ourable Josée Verner, announced the cre­ation of a new pro­gram called  Build­ing Com­mu­ni­ties Through Arts and Her­itage. This announce­ment ful­fills a com­mit­ment made in the 2007 fed­eral bud­get to devote $30 mil­lion a year over two years to local fes­ti­vals and spe­cial events.

One of the strong points of this announce­ment is def­i­nitely the news that $7 mil­lion from this pro­gram will be added to the bud­get of Arts Pre­sen­ta­tion Canada, to pro­vide sup­port to pro­fes­sional arts and her­itage fes­ti­vals.  This fund­ing will be grad­u­ally intro­duced, and will be fully avail­able in 2009–2010.

Fed­eral Sub­si­dies and Con­tri­bu­tion Agree­ments: Where Do Things Stand?

Some may recall the rec­om­men­da­tions made last win­ter to the fed­eral gov­ern­ment by the Blue Rib­bon Panel on Grants and Contributions

An imple­men­ta­tion process for these rec­om­men­da­tions has been estab­lished under the direc­tion of the Trea­sury Board, with rep­re­sen­ta­tion from con­cerned par­ties. Imag­ine Canada has formed a work­ing group, which meets every six weeks with gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tives. Dur­ing a meet­ing this past June attended by the CCA, the non-profit sec­tor iden­ti­fied three clear pri­or­i­ties, which were accepted by the Trea­sury Board:

Given that the admin­is­tra­tion of many sub­sidy pro­grams and con­tri­bu­tion agree­ments has been trans­ferred to the provinces, the work­ing group formed by Imag­ine Canada will look at the need for provinces to take mea­sures sim­i­lar to those being devel­oped at the fed­eral level. Sig­nif­i­cant progress on this ques­tion should take place dur­ing 2008, and the CCA will keep you informed of any major developments.