Budget allocates $438M to cultural spending
Not all spending new, but arts groups welcome money for infrastructure
Last Updated: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 | 7:15 PM ET
CBC News
The Conservative government announced $438.6 million in spending to arts and culture over the next two years in the budget handed down Tuesday.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty barely mentioned the arts in a speech that lavished money on tax cuts and infrastructure spending.
However, background documents say the government plans:
- $100 million in spending over two years on arts, music and comedy festivals.
- $60 million over two years for infrastructure spending that could help in repairing theatres, museums and other cultural buildings.
- $28.6 million over two years to the Canada New Media Fund, which creates interactive digital content.
- $20 million over two years for a national arts training program.
- $30 million for Canadian magazines and community newspapers.
- $200 million for the Canadian Television Fund (CTF).
Not all the spending is new, but arts organizations were glad to see the arts acknowledged by a government that has a reputation for bashing the arts.
"Generally speaking, the government has got the message that the arts sector is not only good policy but important to Canadians and the sector is important to the economy," said Alain Pineau, national director of the Canadian Conference of the Arts.
The infrastructure spending, about $30 million a year, doubles spending for capital projects and is especially welcome, he said.
Museums welcome investment
The Canadian Museums Association, whose members are dealing with crumbling buildings and poor storage for artifacts, congratulated the government for the investment.
However, it was "a major disappointment" that no new money was allocated for developing international markets for Canadian artists, Pineau said.
The cutting last year of Trade Routes and PromArt, which helped arts groups tour and make contacts overseas, was a major blow to arts communities.
"That's one of the major requests of the sector … to replace those programs and its seem to be completely discounted," Pineau said.
Part of the money allocated to festivals and the national training program is new, Pineau said.
The $30 million for Canadian magazines and periodicals replaces the subsidy on postal rates that expires at the end of this year and would have made Canadian periodicals prohibitively expensive.
The $200 million allocated to the CTF, which funds Canadian television productions, is just an acknowledgement that the program will not be ended as the cable industry had demanded in hearings last year. The program currently has an allocation of about $100 million a year from the government.
Missed opportunity
By failing to increase spending in this area, the government has missed a major opportunity for economic stimulus, says NDP heritage critic Charlie Angus.
"The TV sector was hoping for stimulus. This is just the status quo and possibly less. This is not going to flow into communities and start new production," he said.
The Canadian actors' union, ACTRA agreed.
"We're relieved to see signs that the Conservative government is taking the cultural sector more seriously. However, we are disappointed that they passed on the opportunity to maximize the potential of the film and TV industry to stimulate the economy," Stephen Waddell, ACTRA's national executive director, said in a statement.
"It's an extremely efficient industry that creates hundreds of thousands of well-paying, creative, skilled jobs. We're surprised the government is passing on such a no-brainer."
The new spending appears to be a recognition that arts and culture is a significant part of the Canadian economy. A study last year by the Conference Board of Canada found arts and culture contributed $46 billion to Canada's economy in 2007.
Heritage Minister James Moore has been quoting that figure at meetings with arts groups across the country ahead of the budget.
Reversing the damage
Moore's cross-country tour was an attempt to reverse damage the Conservatives did to their image when they cut $44.5 million in arts programs last September. Further damage was done by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's assertion that Canadians did not care to hear artists complaining about cuts to their grants.
Some observers say those comments cost the Tories critical votes in Quebec.
During question period in the House of Commons Tuesday, ahead of delivery of the budget, Moore said Canadians want to see support for their artists and said the Conservative government would have total annual spending on the arts of $2.3 billion.
"This is a much higher amount than was ever done in the past by the federal government. This will help improve the quality of life of all Canadians," he said. "We are delivering the goods for the artistic community."
Full details of arts spending won't be known until later in the week, when the government releases its budget estimates.
"It's always difficult to tell with a budget. All the hidden booby prizes are in the estimates which we won't see until later," Angus said.
