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Arden's Notebook

June 8, 2010

So, what could $1.1 billion dollars buy us?

For those of you who don't live in Toronto, you cannot imagine the kerfuffle over the G20 meeting that is taking place here the weekend of June 25 and 26. First, the government pressured Pride Week to change its dates. There goes millions of dollars in plans, personal and corporate. Then the issues around "security" started, including the recent revelation that the costs of this aspect of the meeting will be north of $1.1 billion (with a "b") dollars. And that's just the security costs. Who knows what the final tab for this shindig will be?

I'm not going to make any comment on the event itself or its content. I cannot know if it will result in any meaningful changes to our world. But I sure am going to comment on what this suggests the government's priorities are. And they aren't us as citizens and they aren't us in the arts community.

We've been told for awhile now that there is no money for anything "new" and that we are lucky not to lose existing funding at the federal level. They went way further than that in BC and decimated arts funding in that province. We all had a rollicking good time at the Olympics, there is no doubt about that, but boy, it sure seems to have come at a price and that price is not being paid equally by all sectors.

But back to the G20. There is no money for anything anybody wants. Least not any of us. But clearly the government has plenty of dough for security for a 2 day meeting – a meeting which will disrupt this city beyond almost anything I have ever heard of or seen before. VIA Rail has announced that trains will not stop in Toronto during that time. If you're coming to town, you'll need to get off in Oshawa (60 kms away), Brampton (40 kms away) or Oakville (48 kms away) and drive or bus the rest of the way.

Security perimeters are being built in a radius around the Toronto Convention Centre, the main meeting venue. People who live and work within the inner perimeter are being told they will need to get special identification to allow them to come and go. Security cameras are being set up everywhere. Another larger but less controlled security zone (the "traffic routing zone") covers an even greater swath of the downtown core. (Just so you know, the Equity office is literally on the north east edge of the "traffic routing zone" and so we have had to discuss what plans we need to make if people are unable to get to and/or leave the office during the week) It's hard not to see the holding pen being built down along the waterfront as looking an awful lot like a concentration camp, complete with razor wire to keep the rowdies in until such time as they can be dealt with. Speaking of the rowdies, the government has thoughtfully designated the northern part of Queen's Park as the "Designated Speech Area", and promised faithfully to pipe the protests and speeches into the Convention Centre so the delegates can watch. Sorry, Gil Scott-Heron, the revolution will ONLY be televised apparently...(visit YouTube to hear "The revolution will not be televised")

The Mayor of Toronto, David Miller, went on the radio last week to encourage everyone to stay away from the downtown core for the entire week; in fact people have been encouraged to get out of town if they can. Thanks for that advice, Mayor Miller… we'll be sure to take it… except that there are a number of theatres which have performances planned for that week and are now cancelling them because no one wants to venture into that area. People who had tickets are calling to switch dates. And no one is buying any new ones. The National Ballet of Canada is on the edge of the "Designated Speech Area" and is concerned about security as are its patrons. Mirvish Productions, who is deep in the traffic zone area, has decided they have no choice but to cancel performances scheduled for that week. And who do you think gets to pay for that?

Well, here's a few alternate ideas for what could be done with that money.

We could run...
• The Canadian Opera Company, the National Ballet of Canada, The National Arts Centre, The Shaw Festival and The Stratford Festival combined for about 5 and a half years.
• The Shaw Festival for 44 years
• Manitoba Theatre Centre - 122 years
• The Alberta Ballet Company - 130 years
• The Charlottetown Festival for on the interest calculated at 0.05% - forever
• Bard on the Beach for on the interest calculated at 0.05% - forever
• Neptune Theatre for on the interest calculated at 0.05% - forever
• "Dirty Dancing" for 35 years
• The Canada Council for 7 years
• The Toronto Arts Council for 100 years (forever on the interest probably...)
• The BC Arts Council for 100 years(same thing)
• And we could fund not just the Trade Routes and PromArts federal touring budgets that were cancelled for 80 years but ALL of the cuts made in August 2008 for the next 40 years.

Let's hope this meeting amounts to something or Canada's arts and culture community might have to consider joining the line of economically disadvantaged countries reduced to begging for scraps from the wealthiest ones.

All the best,

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