rabble.ca Canadian federal election blog

Arts and Culture – Judging the Party Platforms

By Garry Neil

As we head into the final few days of campaigning, arts and culture issues continue to play a key role in the election. Harper’s ill-considered program cuts and comments about cultural elites have come back to haunt him, particularly in Québec where Conservative fortunes have fallen.

In desperation, the Conservative platform, released only a week before the vote tries to make amends. It promises tax credits for parents who enrol their children in cultural programs and commits that the provision of Bill C-10 that would have provided the Minister of Canadian Heritage with authority to deny tax credits retroactively to movies deemed objectionable would be withdrawn. Clearly, this is far too little, too late.

The Liberals offer more. They will increase the film tax credit, double the budget of the Canada Council, introduce a new international arts promotion program, and invest more in the Museum Assistance Program.  They also promise a digital media strategy and support for CRTC Canadian content regulations. They will introduce income averaging provisions for artistic income modelled on the (modest) provisions implemented several years ago by Québec.

The Green Party’s arts platform is entitled “Beauty and Integrity.”  It begins with a positive vision and offers a broad range of increases to various programs and institutions, from community arts to the cultural industries.  It commits to restoring the arms-length principle so critical for arts funding.  It even offers a program to fund outstanding individual artists modelled on Japan’s National Treasure Program. The Greens promise tax relief and social benefits for artists, and are the only Party to commit to protecting Canada’s culture in trade negotiations. While the Party platform is quite extensive, it seems to have been written by people who are not cultural experts. For example, it offers to “enact legislation” to require 20 per cent Canadian content in movie theatres and video chains. While this would be lovely to have, the federal government just not have jurisdiction to implement such a measure. Also, the platform does not use the most recent data from the Conference Board on the economic value of the sector, relying instead on older figures taken from Statistics Canada.

The NDP goes much further than the Liberals. They first promise to maintain limits on foreign ownership, both in television and telecommunications. They will “refocus” the mandate of the CRTC on the cultural objectives and will establish “targets and a strategy” for increasing Canadian content in our theatres. They will “require” broadcasters in increase their production and broadcast of Canadian drama. They propose increases to film and television production tax credits and new rules favoured by the industry. They will provide “sustained funding” for the CTF and Telefilm and “stable long-term funding” for the CBC. Other promises include income averaging provisions, income tax exemption for copyright and residual income, more resources for career transition initiatives, copyright legislation that ensures fair compensation for artists and several other measures. While the platform is short on specifics, it is clear that people knowledgeable about current policy issues have had a hand in drafting the policy.

Garry Neil is a former general secretary of ACTRA and vice-president of the Canadian Conference of the Arts. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the Council of Canadians.