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Arden's Notebook

February 1, 2009

Budget 2009

For the arts, it is a tale… full of sound and fury signifying nothing…

Yesterday, the Federal government released its much anticipated budget and as I mentioned in my first column, I didn’t think we’d get much. Well, we didn’t. At least not in terms of new investment in the arts. But does it signal a recognition that the arts community can’t be ignored? I think there is general consensus that the new Minister of Heritage, James Moore, has already demonstrated a greater interest in his portfolio than several of his predecessors. And that is definitely a good thing. One hesitates to rain on a new Minister’s parade too soon, as we do want to have an open and productive relationship with Moore.

On the surface, the dollar figures look impressive. In reality, they just don’t translate into substantial stimulus for our part of the world. And that concerns me. When I look at all the other elements of the budget, I know that I can’t possibly recognize which of those programs or dollar figures are new or useful to those sectors. People in the forestry sector (for example) may think the arts and culture will have gotten their fair share when they just add up the numbers. But they won’t be able to assess the impact any more than I can tell if the money to their industry is a) new rather than just a continuation of existing money and b) being spent in the right places or not.

But, let’s look at the figures for all the arts and culture spending one by one.

1) $200 million over 2 years for the Canadian Television Fund. This is neither new money nor an increase in the dollar value that the Fund had received in previous years. In fact, this figure hasn’t increased in MANY years. It’s a darn good thing that the program has been renewed for another two years, but this is simply a continuation of existing program expenditures, and the money doesn’t go anywhere near as far as it did 10 years ago.

2) $60 million over two years for cultural infrastructure for local and community cultural and heritage institutions, such as local theatres, small museums and libraries. This is certainly nice but will really only provide jobs for local plumbers and carpenters. Please don’t get me wrong – I certainly don’t begrudge these folks a living – I’m just pointing out that this money doesn’t put a penny in artists' pockets. But hopefully this funding will allow for some much needed improvements in leaky ceilings and cranky heating systems.

3) $30 million over two years to support continued access to Canadian magazines and community newspapers. This appears to replace the Postal Subsidy that was provided previously by Canada Post. I can’t knowledgably comment on how this will impact this particular sector, but I do know that while we may not see this as money in the arts, when the government tells us how much they have spent on arts and culture, they will include this figure.

4) $28.6 million over two years for the New Media Fund with an annual allotment of $14.3 million after that. During the whole brouhaha in the summer over the $40-odd million dollars worth of cuts to the arts, the future of the New Media Fund was unclear. While some sources had said it was targeted for termination, there was never confirmation one way or the other. This clarifies that the program will be continued at the previous funding level so, like the Canadian Television Fund, you would be hard pressed to identify this as “new money”. It’s really just money they didn’t cut. But not cutting it is definitely a good thing.

5) $25 million endowment for Canada Prizes for the Arts and Creativity, which according to the Action Plan, will “bring the world’s best new artists from a vast array of art forms to Canada to compete for the title of most promising new artist and for significant cash awards. These international awards will be given in dance, music, art and dramatic arts. It is not specified which department will actually manage this program nor what the dollar value of the prizes will be. It would be nice if this turned into a prestigious competition but it does not specifically create opportunities for Canadian artists. Only time will tell if this turns into something truly interesting or not.

6) $20 million over two years and $13 million per year after that to the National Arts Training Contribution Program. According to the details in the “Economic Action Plan”, this money will help fund the training opportunities offered by institutions such as the National Ballet School, the Royal Conservatory of Music, the Banff Centre and the Ecole nationale du cirque. Here is the only actual increase in funding as far as I can tell – this represents an increase of $7 million for the current year and $13 million for the next year. That includes a sum of $6 million which was due to end in 2010-2011 so this represents a net gain of $7 million. We can certainly question the wisdom of creating even more talented, trained artists with few job opportunities but there has never been enough work to go around and so we should recognize this particular funding as the positive contribution that it is.

7) Under the Tourism sector, $100 million dollars over two years will go to “marquee festivals and events that encourage tourism.” These would likely include some of the larger music festivals around the country, such as the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal. Certainly, many festivals showcase local talent but again, this can’t in any way be considered job creation.
All the best,

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