Update to Report on the Canadian Conference of the Arts, June 2006
Barbara Godard
Since my report in November, the CCA has been on a dizzying roller coaster ride through the cultural funding arena. The summit was climbed on November 23 2005, when the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage announced an increase in federal fiscal investment in the Canada Council for the Arts to double its allocation of funds, in the cultural programmes of the Department of Foreign Affairs and an increase in funding for museums and galleries. However, the dissolution of parliament before the funds were released and the subsequent election of a Conservative government initiated a sharp downward spiral. All the energies of the CCA have subsequently focused on making the new government respect the promises undertaken in November by the all-party committee, especially since the new Minister of Canadian Heritage, Ms. Bev Oda, was a member of that committee and had spoken in support of increased cultural funding during her election campaign.
The National Policy Conference and the Chalmers' Conference, held together from March 2-4 2006 in Ottawa, focused on establishing priorities for the arts community in its lobbying the federal government. In the well-attended meetings, enlivened by the improvised syntheses of a rap poet and the graphical representations of their comments by a mediator wielding coloured pens, delegates reiterated the demand for increased stable funding for the arts. In particular, the CCA called on the government to honour the commitments made in November, which include an increase of the budget of the Canada Council by $150 million over 3 years, as well as increases to the cultural funding programmes in Foreign Affairs, the National Art Centre and national training institutions. Additionally, the CCA pressed the federal government to expand the tax credit for extracurricular physical activities, to include arts activities, and to initiate new positions on tax policy that might produce more equitable treatment of self-employed artists and arts professionals. The government was also urged to introduce measures to increase funding for federal museums and to expand the CBC's regional programming.
The CCA was able to present these demands to the Minister of Finance directly during the unusually brief period of pre-budget consultations in April. Although the minister cut the meeting short, he had time to express interest in the measures proposed by the CCA regarding the implementation of income averaging for self-employed artists and cultural workers as well as policies for exempting royalties from taxation. The minister asked the CCA to provide a more detailed costing of such programmes for his office as, indeed, had been anticipated, such a policy having the support of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives as well as fitting well with the ideology of individual autonomy and the market place, rather than government support, embraced by the Conservatives. In addition to lobbying the Minister of Finance directly, the CCA urged its members to participate in the on-line pre-budget consultations set up by the Finance minister. Responding to the invitation, I emailed the Minister, identifying myself as a member of LTAC/ ATTLC, in support of the priorities established by the CCA to implement the policy decisions of November 2005. These messages from the arts community had only a limited effect since the 2006 Federal Budget, unveiled on May 2, responded only to the demand for increased funding by according the Canada Council an additional $50 million over the next two years. A priority consquently for the CCA is to secure this additional sum as a permanent increase in the Council's budget.
This week, the CCA will be involved in discussions about another recently announced policy change, namely the establishment of a Francophone Secretariat in the Ministry of Canadian Heritage. The short notice of the invitation to participate in these discussions and the brief period allocated for consultation with cultural organizations to define the nature and role of this new structure (June 9), have left many apprehensive about the possible outcome of what, nonetheless, is judged a positive initiative.
Since the government in power is another minority government, the CCA will continue to lobby all the parties sitting in the House of Commons to press the demands articulated in 2005 and reaffirmed at the policy conferences in March 2006.