The Broken Record: The effects of Harper's arts cuts
Marc MacDonald
Issue date: 12/2/08 Section: Arts & Entertainment
Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said this weekend that he will present a "comprehensive" budget on Jan. 27, 2009. With this in mind, it's time that someone took a closer look at what Harper's proposed arts cuts will mean.
The City of Ottawa announced in early November a proposed cut of over $4 million in its Heritage funding, which represents a 54 per cent cut of its arts budget. What could happen if this takes place across Canada?
The proposed cuts from Harper included the following organizations as being on the chopping block: E-culture, Trade Routes, PromArt, Canadian Film and Video Fund, National Training Program for the Film and Video Sector, Audio-visual Preservation Trust, Canadian Culture online (Research and Development Component), Canadian Memory Fund, Canadian Arts and Heritage Sustainability Program (Stabilization Project, Capacity Building and Endangered Arts organizations), Canadian Music Fund (Canadian Music Memories Component), Northern Native Broadcast Access Program, Book Publishing Industry Development Program and Canadian Magazine Fund. The final result: a cut of $46,097,000 proposed for March 31, 2009.
What exactly do these programs do? Well, each one is different and I'll provide context for a few in a minute; what you need to know is that these programs provide money for artists and companies helping to promote art. What many people, including Harper, don't understand is that these artists and companies must go through a rigorous process to determine if they are eligible to receive funding; thus, prior claims that funding choices were made inappropriately in the past are moot.
Explaining what each of these endangered programs do is a process that would take a great deal of time and simply wouldn't fit in a single article; so let me briefly explain what some of them do and hopefully, their contributions to Canadian arts will be obvious.
Trade Routes helps profit and not-for-profit organizations in the arts and cultural sector prepare to export and sell in international markets.
The City of Ottawa announced in early November a proposed cut of over $4 million in its Heritage funding, which represents a 54 per cent cut of its arts budget. What could happen if this takes place across Canada?
The proposed cuts from Harper included the following organizations as being on the chopping block: E-culture, Trade Routes, PromArt, Canadian Film and Video Fund, National Training Program for the Film and Video Sector, Audio-visual Preservation Trust, Canadian Culture online (Research and Development Component), Canadian Memory Fund, Canadian Arts and Heritage Sustainability Program (Stabilization Project, Capacity Building and Endangered Arts organizations), Canadian Music Fund (Canadian Music Memories Component), Northern Native Broadcast Access Program, Book Publishing Industry Development Program and Canadian Magazine Fund. The final result: a cut of $46,097,000 proposed for March 31, 2009.
What exactly do these programs do? Well, each one is different and I'll provide context for a few in a minute; what you need to know is that these programs provide money for artists and companies helping to promote art. What many people, including Harper, don't understand is that these artists and companies must go through a rigorous process to determine if they are eligible to receive funding; thus, prior claims that funding choices were made inappropriately in the past are moot.
Explaining what each of these endangered programs do is a process that would take a great deal of time and simply wouldn't fit in a single article; so let me briefly explain what some of them do and hopefully, their contributions to Canadian arts will be obvious.
Trade Routes helps profit and not-for-profit organizations in the arts and cultural sector prepare to export and sell in international markets.
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