Arts funding

• Create a Quebec-only regulator of broadcast policy.

• Introduce a law recognizing Quebec’s distinct cinema and obligate Telefilm Canada to also recognize it.

• Add $50 million to Telefilm funding, with $20 million earmarked for Quebec films.

• Create a separate fund for French-language documentary and Imax films.

• Give all responsibility for Quebec cultural policy to the province.

• Create a fund to boost artists’ incomes for as long as five years.

• Allow artists to apply for Employment Insurance.

• Exempt authors and composers from taxes on rights and royalties.

• Eliminate federal sales tax on books.

• Raise the annual funding for the Canada Council for the Arts from $180 million to $300 million.

• Create a $30-million festivals funding program controlled by the Quebec government.

• Create a new museums policy that takes account of the needs of museums across Canada and Quebec.

• Introduce incentives to distribute the works of regional and emerging artists, including dedicated space on online media.

• Create a Unesco secretariat devoted to cultural diversity in Canada and base it in Quebec.

• Modify licences for satellite radio to provide more space for francophone broadcasting.

• Maintain foreign ownership restrictions on broadcast enterprises.

• Increase funding to all of Canada’s arts and culture organizations — including the Canada Council for the Arts, Telefilm Canada, orchestras, theatres and publishers — commensurate with increases to other sectors of the economy.

• Provide stable base funding for the CBC.

• Ensure that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) reserves more bandwidth for independent and non-profit stations.

• Require cinemas and video chains to have 20 per cent Canadian content.

• Restore arm’s-length principles in governance of arts and culture and require heads of federal agencies to be appointed by an independent committee rather than by government.

• Eliminate provisions that would allow the federal government to rescind tax credits from films deemed “unfit.”

• Increase support for community arts programs and facilities with a stable base at a percentage of the federal budget.

• Equalize federal funding for arts and culture among provinces, territories and municipalities.

• Provide incentives to all provinces and territories to improve arts and culture education.

• Extend income tax relief and incentives to artists based on successful models established in Ireland and Berlin.

• Allow artists to access social programs such as Employment Insurance, workers compensation and the Canada Pension Plan.

• Allow the averaging of artists’ incomes over a number of years for income tax purposes.

• Protect Canada’s cultural identity during international trade negotiations.

• Restore a transport service between museums and galleries.

• Reverse $44.5 million in funding cuts to cultural programs announced this summer.

• Restore the Public Diplomacy Program, which funded artists touring overseas, and which was cut in 2006.

• Increase the Canadian film and production tax credit to 30 per cent.

• Double funding for the Canada Council for the Arts, bringing its annual budget to $360 million.

• Increase funding for international arts promotion by $15 million over three years.

• Invest $16 million in the Canadian Museums Assistance Program, which helps museums send exhibits on tour.

• Direct the CRTC to demand Canadian content as a prerequisite of broadcast licences.

• Launch a digital media strategy that would develop an industry creating educational and entertainment projects for new media.

• Allow the averaging of artists’ incomes over a number of years for income tax purposes.

• Introduce income averaging for artists for tax purposes, modelled on the long-standing practice in Quebec.

• Provide an annual federal tax exemption of $20,000 for income earned from copyright and residuals.

• Reform the CRTC to ensure that prime-time television in French and in English is written by, directed by, stars and tells stories about Canadians.

• Mandate a permanent increase in broadcasting of Canadian drama on TV.

• Maintain effective regulation of foreign ownership of broadcast interests.

• Provide Radio-Canada and the CBC with stable, secure and adequate funding.

• Protect and properly fund Telefilm and the Canadian Television Fund and enhance federal film tax incentives.

• Expand the federal film tax incentive to include costs of post-production.

• Establish targets and a strategy to enhance distribution and screening of domestic films.

• Protect and properly fund the Canada Council for the Arts.

• Reverse $44.5 million in cuts to culture.

• Develop a strategy for supporting and preserving Canadian museums and heritage buildings and lighthouses.

• Give ordinary Canadians expanded access to Canadian content online through a digital culture service.

• Ensure copyright reform compensates creators of art and has input from stakeholders, including consumers, artists, educators and software innovators.

The Conservative party's full platform was released Tuesday, Oct. 7, a week before the election.

• Maintain funding for arts and culture at or above existing levels.
• Improve effectiveness of arts allocations. The prime minister says he wants to "shift spending to programs that are the most effective."
• Create a new, refundable tax credit of up to $500 for children under age 16 enrolled in arts or cultural activities. Make this credit accessible to low-income families.
• A new Conservative government will not reintroduce rules that would allow government to rescind tax credits from film or TV shows considered “unsuitable.”
• Prohibit spam to collect personal information under false pretences and to engage in crime.
• Give self-employed Canadians the opportunity to access maternity and paternity benefits.

• Reintroduce federal copyright legislation that brings intellectual property protection in line with other international jurisdictions and protect artists, consumers and creators.

• Improving enforcement on counterfeiting and privacy.

• Increase the threshold for foreign investment review (the policy does not say whether this would be applied in the broadcast industry).

• Work to ensure that appointments to federal agencies reflect the diversity of Canada.

• Guarantee alternating French- and English-language CRTC chairs; guarantee one English, one French vice-chair.

• 25 per cent of CRTC committee members to be francophone and Quebec broadcast hearings to have majority of French-speaking members on their panels

• Increase funding to TV5, the international French-language television network by $25 million over five years.

• Promote national recognition of important historic occasions, including the 400th anniversary of English settlement in Newfoundland, the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 and the 150th anniversary of Confederation.