CCA Bul­letin 16/09

May 20, 2009

Just the Facts

As some provin­cial gov­ern­ments began announc­ing ini­tia­tives to sup­port the arts, the CCA thought it timely to review what provin­cial gov­ern­ments are doing to help arts orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­u­als in the sec­tor weather the eco­nomic down­turn. While we have not been able to col­lect infor­ma­tion from all juris­dic­tions, here is what we have gath­ered so far.

British Colum­bia

As BC vot­ers went to the polls on May 12, 2009 the biggest cul­tural issue was the 40% cut to the British Colum­bia Arts Coun­cil made by the Camp­bell gov­ern­ment in the cur­rent fis­cal year.  The NDP and the Green Party had com­mit­ted to revers­ing this cut while on the Lib­eral side, the then Min­is­ter of Cul­ture, Bill Ben­nett, promised dur­ing the cam­paign to do all in his power to con­vince his col­leagues in Cab­i­net to can­cel the reduc­tion, which could reach 50% of the Arts Coun­cil bud­get in 2010-11.

It must be said that the Lib­er­als did invest addi­tional money in 2009 (sur­plus from last fis­cal) into the arts sec­tor, to the point that some orga­ni­za­tions have received more than they were ini­tially set to receive before the cuts were announced! This has done a lot to soften the blow this year and, if those orga­ni­za­tions are pru­dent in their spend­ing, it should also help soften the blow for next year if the cuts are not reversed.

Now that the votes are counted, the CCA will watch with inter­est what the new Lib­eral gov­ern­ment, elected for the third time in a row, plans to do about a long-term vision for sup­port­ing the arts in BC.

Alberta

The new motto for the gov­ern­ment of Alberta is “Free­dom to Cre­ate: Free­dom to Achieve.”  The gov­ern­ment has also artic­u­lated five pri­or­i­ties, the fifth of which is:

“Strong Com­mu­ni­ties – Liv­ing in strong com­mu­ni­ties means feel­ing safe and secure; hav­ing a deep sense of belong­ing; and hav­ing access to a vibrant arts and cul­ture scene.”

This said, Alberta has not devel­oped any spe­cific new mea­sures for the arts in the cur­rent eco­nomic cri­sis. The 2009/10 provin­cial bud­get pro­vides some $71.2 mil­lion or 23% of the bud­get of the Min­istry of Cul­ture and Com­mu­nity Spirit to the arts and cul­ture. Cul­tural orga­ni­za­tions also ben­e­fit from access to the Major Com­mu­nity Facil­i­ties Pro­gram which is a two year $280 mil­lion pro­gram. Among the ben­e­fi­cia­ries announced on May 7, 2009 are La Cité Fran­coph­one, the Edmon­ton Space and Sci­ence Foun­da­tion, and the Nina Hag­gerty Cen­tre for the Arts.

Arts and cul­ture orga­ni­za­tions can also access a pro­gram to encour­age equal­ity and reduce dis­crim­i­na­tion.  The recip­i­ents announced on March 9, 2009 include the Stage Left Pro­duc­tions The­atre Asso­ci­a­tion, L’Association mul­ti­cul­turelle fran­coph­one de l’Alberta, the Somali Cana­dian Cul­tural Soci­ety of Edmon­ton, and the United Cul­tures of Canada Association.

Saskatchewan

The Saskatchewan Arts Alliance reports that the reces­sion is begin­ning to have some seri­ous effects on arts and cul­ture orga­ni­za­tions. The Alliance has been press­ing the province’s gov­ern­ment to act, but so far there is no sign of movement.

Man­i­toba

The gov­ern­ment of Man­i­toba has intro­duced a bud­get for 2009/10 based on the notion that the province is going to weather the eco­nomic down­turn with­out the need for spe­cial blan­ket eco­nomic stim­u­lus mea­sures. Some mea­sures are con­tem­plated for the agri­cul­ture and min­ing sec­tor and since some arts orga­ni­za­tions are fac­ing par­tic­u­larly chal­leng­ing sit­u­a­tions, the gov­ern­ment has indi­cated it may inter­vene on a case by case basis. The Arts Branch of the Min­istry of Cul­ture, Her­itage and Sport will receive $ 3,5 mil­lion for grants and another $ 4.1 mil­lion for Film and Sound. These funds are part of the larger depart­men­tal bud­get of $ 88.6 million.

Ontario

The recent Ontario provin­cial bud­get was good news for the arts sec­tor. The fol­low­ing ini­tia­tives were part of the province’s finan­cial plan:

“Ontario has the third-largest enter­tain­ment and cre­ative sec­tor in North Amer­ica, and is the lead­ing province in film and tele­vi­sion pro­duc­tion, book and mag­a­zine pub­lish­ing and sound record­ing. The gov­ern­ment is con­tin­u­ing to strengthen the com­pet­i­tive­ness of Ontario’s enter­tain­ment and cre­ative indus­tries, by propos­ing approx­i­mately $100 mil­lion annu­ally in addi­tional tax relief and invest­ments of nearly $30 mil­lion.  Pro­pos­als include:

Enhanc­ing tax sup­port for the cre­ation of inter­ac­tive dig­i­tal media prod­ucts in Ontario

Enhanc­ing the refund­able book pub­lish­ing tax credit

Enhanc­ing the refund­able com­puter ani­ma­tion and spe­cial effects tax credit

Mak­ing the enhanced tax credit rates under the refund­able film and tele­vi­sion tax cred­its per­ma­nent, cre­at­ing pre­dictabil­ity and sta­bil­ity for the indus­try $20 mil­lion to the Ontario Media Devel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (OMDC), an agency of the Min­istry of Cul­ture, which pro­vides sup­port to a num­ber of Ontario’s cre­ative indus­tries as they com­pete domes­ti­cally and glob­ally $10 mil­lion for a pilot pro­gram, admin­is­tered through the OMDC, which would refund a por­tion of the costs asso­ci­ated with intel­lec­tual prop­erty devel­op­ment to Ontario-based com­pa­nies in the screen-based industries.”

Strat­ford Shake­spearean Fes­ti­val also received fund­ing of over $ 500,000 in provin­cial sup­port of tourism devel­op­ment efforts.

Québec

The Min­is­ter of Cul­ture, Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Sta­tus of Women, Chris­tine St-Pierre, has recently announced a new pro­gram which allows Québec orga­ni­za­tions to have recourse to expert sup­port for admin­is­tra­tion, artis­tic direc­tion, devel­op­ment plan­ning, and governance.

The $1.6 mil­lion fund will be admin­is­tered by the Con­seil des arts et des let­tres du Québec (CALQ). Spe­cial­ized pre­sen­ters, artist-run cen­tres, pub­lish­ers of cul­tural peri­od­i­cals, ser­vice orga­ni­za­tions, alliances and pro­duc­ers are eli­gi­ble to apply if they have received a pre­vi­ous grant from the CALQ.

Nova Sco­tia

Nova Sco­tia is head­ing to the polls to elect a new provin­cial gov­ern­ment on June 9, 2009. No action has taken place to inject new resources into the arts, but the CCA will watch the devel­op­ment of cam­paign plat­forms by each of the polit­i­cal par­ties to dis­cern how this might become an elec­tion issue.

The province did award a total of $45,000 in schol­ar­ships and awards to artists. The funds were drawn from inter­est gen­er­ated by the Nova Sco­tia Arts Endow­ment Fund which was cre­ated as part of the now defunct Nova Sco­tia Arts Council.

New­found­land and Labrador

Always eager to help the fed­eral gov­ern­ment in a tight spot, the Pre­mier of New­found­land and Labrador has stepped up to the plate and assured artists and cre­ators of the province that he would pro­vide the $250,000.00 they pre­vi­ously received from the Pro­mArt  Pro­gram of For­eign Affairs and the TradeR­outes pro­gram of the Depart­ment of Cana­dian Her­itage. The Pre­mier has said despite the can­cel­la­tion of these pro­grams by the fed­eral gov­ern­ment, New­found­land and Labrador artists and cre­ators still need to build artists and mar­kets around the world.

Addi­tion­ally, $25,000.00 has been ded­i­cated to the cre­ation of an Arts and Let­ters Award, and $115,000.00 for film pro­duc­tion. No cuts have been made to exist­ing arts and cul­ture pro­grams in the province.

Other Provinces

No infor­ma­tion has yet been pro­vided by New Brunswick or Prince Edward Island.