392
The Department of Canadian Heritage has decided to cut five more arts and culture programs over the next two years, even as a chorus of complaints from the arts community and opposition MPs rains down on the federal government over cuts announced last week.
Eschewing formal announcements, the government posted notices on the web pages of programs including the Stabilization Projects and Capacity Building, two of the four initiatives under the Canadian Arts and Heritage Sustainability Program.
The Stabilization Projects, to be shut down in April, were established in seven cities from Victoria to Charlottetown to provide financial and administrative support to arts organizations. Capacity Building is a companion program to provide similar assistance to organizations with no access to a Stabilization Project. Capacity Building has given aid to 347 arts and 214 heritage organizations since 2002, but will be cut in 2010.
The department also plans to end its annual contributions of $300,000 to the A-V Presentation Trust, $1.5-million to the Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund and $2.5-million to the National Training Program in the Film and Video Sector, adding to consternation over last week's planned elimination of the $9-million Trade Routes – which helps cultural groups such as Hot Docs and the Canadian Independent Record Production Association export and sell products abroad. On the same day, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade cut the $4.7-million PromArt program – which provides travel grants to artists and arts organizations.
Related Articles
Numerous film and television executives speculated nervously that this belt-tightening could be a prelude to even more substantial cuts.
In a French-language interview with La Presse Canadienne Thursday, Canadian Heritage Minister Josée Verner defended the cuts saying the government only wanted to help arts and culture organizations in a more efficient manner and those being axed failed to demonstrate that they were providing sufficient returns for the dollars invested.
“Culture is an essential element of the identity of a nation and in that sense, will always have its unfailing support,” she said.
Earlier this week, Liberal Heritage critic Denis Coderre reacted furiously to the PromArt and Trade Routes cuts, calling them “totally unacceptable” and “disgusting.” He also poked fun at the government's timing of the announcement, sarcastically suggesting more cuts would appear because “we still have a lot of Fridays, and you've got to use that.”
It took only until Wednesday.
Members of the Bloc Québécois and NDP also had harsh words for the Conservatives, with Bloc MP Claude DeBellefeuille saying she “did not think it possible for a government to show so much contempt” for artists.
A slew of arts and culture organizations also released official statements condemning the cuts and arguing that the elimination of PromArt and Trade Routes will devastate individual organizations as well as Canada's image abroad. Nearly all predated news of the latest cuts.
“It's catastrophic for us,” said Alain Dancyger, executive director of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, which recently earned international bookings after touring Paris with help from a PromArt grant. “But beyond our own survival, this decision makes no sense on many levels. At a time when Canadian culture is extremely dynamic and is in demand all over the world, this decision kills the cultural ‘carte de visite' for our embassies, which need culture to lobby and to do business.”
Several more organizations, including Opera.ca, the Writers' Union of Canada, Magnetic North Theatre Festival and the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres, also pelted the government with scorn.
On Thursday night, Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion attended the Toronto Music Festival's performance of Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, explaining to those who spotted him in the lobby that he was there to show support for the arts.
