Budget a missed opportunity, arts groups say

Last Updated: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 | 5:38 PM ET

CBC News

Arts and cultural organizations are calling the Conservative government's new budget a missed opportunity.

The sole mention of culture in the budget handed down Tuesday by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was $9 million over two years for infrastructure spending at Canada's national museums.

The cultural sector has come to expect very little from the Conservative government, said Alain Pineau, executive director of the Canadian Conference for the Arts.

"The good news is that they are not cutting anything to create room to manoeuvre in the economy," he told CBC News.

The federal government has already made two-year commitments to the CBC, the Canadian Television Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and nothing in the budget appears to threaten that funding, he said.

Promised museums policy left out

Ottawa has shown a clear commitment to national museums with the $9-million in infrastructure funding and with the establishment of the new Canadian Human Rights Museum in Winnipeg, said John McAvity, executive director of the Canadian Museums Association.

This is "good news," he said, but Ottawa missed the chance to finally deliver a museums policy, which it promised before it took office.

"The concern we have is the other museums who are our members across Canada," McAvity said. "There's been no movement on the promise of a new museums policy or stable funding to preserve our heritage."

While there is little detail in the budget papers, the CMA is also concerned about $23.2 million in funding over two years that is being taken out of a fund to support "digitization" of museums and reallocated to other priorities.

Nothing in budget for actors, Telefilm

The actors' union ACTRA accused Ottawa of continuing to ignore artists and creators.

The budget was a missed opportunity to increase funding to the Canadian Television Fund and to Telefilm, the film funding agency, which hasn't had an increase in six years, ACTRA said in a statement.

"A modest funding increase for Canada's key cultural institutions would have been a win-win-win for this government," said ACTRA president Richard Hardacre.

"Cultural investment generates economic activity, provides opportunities for performers and other creators and generates high-quality Canadian programming and films audiences want to watch," he said.

"In tough times, that's exactly the kind of investment government should be making, but they've failed to act."