The Reopening in Ottawa – What’s New?

 

CCA Bul­letin 14/12

Sep­tem­ber 13, 2012

 

Sep­tem­ber, it’s the reopen­ing. Activ­ity mul­ti­plies; the mem­bers of par­lia­ment pre­pare for another ses­sion; the CRTC is hold­ing pub­lic audi­ences this week on Bell’s acqui­si­tion of Astral as well as in Novem­ber for CBC’s license renewals; the new sea­sons for the­atres, orches­tras, and dance begin; par­lia­men­tary com­mit­tees will begin soon; and the uni­ver­si­ties return to classes. Every­one feels a lit­tle ner­vous. The CCA is no excep­tion; we have some jit­ters see­ing every­thing that is hap­pen­ing around us.

The Reopen­ing of Parliament

 

Next Mon­day, the 17th is the reopen­ing of par­lia­ment. What should we expect? Short of any unex­pected sur­prises, not much directly relat­ing to cul­ture is on the government’s agenda since C-11 was passed before the sum­mer recess in June. There­fore we turn our gaze towards the Finance Com­mit­tee once again.

The Pre-budget Submissions

 

Like every year, the Finance Com­mit­tee of the House of Com­mons invited all Cana­di­ans to share their pri­or­i­ties for the 2013 Fed­eral Bud­get. The CCA made its sub­mis­sion and rec­om­men­da­tions this sum­mer and hopes to have the oppor­tu­nity to appear before the committee.

Numer­ous CCA mem­bers also con­tributed to the annual rit­ual. We present you with an overview of the rec­om­men­da­tions made by the cul­tural sec­tor. The CCA con­sulted with many of its mem­bers to pre­pare its sub­mis­sion, and noticed agree­ment in many of the sub­mis­sions to the com­mit­tee. We obtained the sub­mis­sions from ACTRA , The Cana­dian Museum Asso­ci­a­tion (CMA), the Cana­dian Arts Pre­sen­ters Asso­ci­a­tion (CAPACOA), the Writ­ers Union of Canada (TWUC), the Cana­dian Arts Coali­tion, the Asso­ci­a­tion des pro­duc­teurs de film et de télévi­sion du Québec (APFTQ), the Asso­ci­a­tion of Cana­dian Pub­lish­ers (ACP), the Inde­pen­dent Media Arts Alliance (IMAA), the Cana­dian Craft Fed­er­a­tion CCF, and from the Mou­ve­ment des arts et des let­tres  du Québec (MAL).

It’s not sur­pris­ing to find rec­om­men­da­tions on train­ing in the cul­tural sec­tor, fis­cal mea­sures, fund­ing for Cana­dian con­tent, and main­tain­ing data and sta­tis­tics in the cul­tural sec­tor in many of the sub­mis­sions. Cer­tainly main­tain­ing and increas­ing the fund­ing of the arts, cul­ture and her­itage such as the Canada Coun­cil for the Arts, as well as insti­tu­tions respon­si­ble for audio­vi­su­als such as Tele­film, CBC and the NFB.

In fact, if the milieu was relieved to find out in March that the Canada Council’s bud­get was main­tained, it reacted weeks later ask­ing that the cuts to the Her­itage Department’s pro­grams, Parks Canada, and the Library and Archives be re-examined.  Mou­ve­ment des arts et des let­tres (MAL) notably invited the Cana­dian gov­ern­ment to, “recon­sider the $191 mil­lion cuts announced in the Finance Minister’s 2012–2013 bud­get.” The Writer’s Union of Canada rec­om­mended rein­vest­ing in Library and Archives, “both on a per­ma­nent basis and with addi­tional fund­ing from the bud­get for the 150th cel­e­bra­tions – for the preser­va­tion, access and dig­i­ti­za­tion of our heritage.”

Train­ing was also a theme present in many of the sub­mis­sions, notably inter­gen­er­a­tional men­tor­ing. The rec­om­men­da­tions in this area kept return­ing to one point in regards to the cuts to the Cul­tural Human Resources Coun­cil (CHRC).

The Asso­ci­a­tion of Cana­dian Publisher’s (ACP) rec­om­mended estab­lish­ing mea­sures to pro­mote advanced read­ing skills. The ACP said, “Advanced read­ing skills, with access to appro­pri­ate read­ing mate­r­ial, improves employ­ment prospects, strength­ens com­mu­ni­ties, and helps new Cana­di­ans adapt to new work­place envi­ron­ments and new cul­tural val­ues.” The asso­ci­a­tion also sup­ports strength­en­ing the Cana­dian own­er­ship rules in the book sector.

One of the ques­tions addressed by the com­mit­tee was the aging pop­u­la­tion. Cer­tain orga­ni­za­tions pro­posed fis­cal mea­sures to encour­age cul­tural work­ers to pro­long their work­ing lives beyond 65 (MAL). ACTRA rec­om­mended that the gov­ern­ment invest in ser­vices such as the Per­form­ing Arts Lodges of Canada, or in the assis­tance net­work for senior artists in Canada, “that directly address the unique needs of some of our most vul­ner­a­ble cit­i­zens, senior artists.”

Lastly, the sub­ject of copy­right was also raised. Many, includ­ing ACTRA, the CCA and TWUC demanded that a part of the rev­enues com­ing from copy­right be exempted from tax­a­tion as it already is in Que­bec. The MAL was a bit harsher and pressed for the gov­ern­ment to take respon­si­bil­ity for deci­sions taken within the frame­work of the new copy­right law that will deprive artists of $126 million.

Evi­dently, many orga­ni­za­tions also made par­tic­u­lar rec­om­men­da­tions for their sec­tors. Notably:

• CAPACOA rec­om­mended that the gov­ern­ment invest in tour­ing and dis­tri­b­u­tion here and abroad and adopt mech­a­nisms to sup­port co-productions to main­tain and stim­u­late increased expor­ta­tion of cul­tural goods and services.

• TWUC rec­om­mended a tax exemp­tion for sub­sis­tence grants admin­is­tered by the Canada Coun­cil which pro­vide min­i­mal stipends for artists for sev­eral months while they focus on their cul­tural work.

• The CMA rec­om­mended a $5 mil­lion increase to the Young Canada Works pro­gram in muse­ums. This would gen­er­ate close to a thou­sand new jobs for stu­dents and grad­u­ates in the cul­tural sector.

• The Cana­dian Arts Coali­tion requested that the gov­ern­ment “invest, as cir­cum­stances per­mit, in the infra­struc­ture (both human and finan­cial) directed to sup­port­ing arts and cul­ture within Canada’s net­work of embassies and consulates.”

• ACTRA requested the gov­ern­ment re-establish income tax aver­ag­ing for artists.

• The APFTQ requested the allo­ca­tion of funds to finance Cana­dian dig­i­tal cul­tural content.

• The Cana­dian Craft Fed­er­a­tion requested that the gov­ern­ment ensure that coun­ter­part funds to Red Seal trades are avail­able to craft artists and that craft appren­tice­ships be developed.

• The Inde­pen­dent Media Arts Alliance (IMAA) asserts in its brief that increased invest­ment in the Canada Coun­cil will allow artist-run orga­ni­za­tions to pur­chase mod­ern equip­ment and offer afford­able work­shops for Canadians.

Don’t for­get that the CCA’s Fed­eral Bud­get Analy­sis from the cul­tural per­spec­tive will be out Sep­tem­ber 18th! You can order your copy here. It’s free for members!