According to a poll by Innovative Research Group, only 40 percent of Canadians agreed in January 2008 that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government is committed to defending the institutions and values that make us special as Canadians. A year earlier, 74 percent of Canadians said they thought “government investments in arts and culture are needed so we do not forget our past and national history.”
Arts Funding Cut by Conservatives
In August 2008, the government decided to cut $44.8 million in spending on arts and culture by April 2010. Programs that provided support to hundreds of arts and heritage organizations across the country landed on the butcher’s block. Many of the casualties were listed by the Canadian Conference of the Arts:
- The Canadian Cultural Observatory website was shut down;
- The Trade Routes program that helped Canadian artists and cultural entrepreneurs market abroad was cancelled;
- Funding for the National Training Program for the Film and Video was discontinued; and,
- Subsidies to book publishing, magazines, and new media were all slashed.
Canadian Arts Community Fights Back
Critics were scathing about the planned cuts condemning them as destroying not only to the organizations affected, but to Canada’s image abroad.
In a Globe and Mail article (September 25, 2008) Canadian author Margaret Atwood described Canada as a creative country. “For decades, we’ve been punching above our weight on the world stage – in writing, in popular music and in many other fields. Canada was once a cultural void on the world map, now it’s a force.”
The Toronto Star ran an article on the cuts on August 16, 2008 and wrote, “The cancellations will have a ‘devastating effect’ on the Canadian arts community, said Antoni Cimolino, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival’s general director, in a statement condemning the action.”
Economic Arguments Attack Arts Funding Cuts
CBC News reported (August 26, 2008) that, “Arts and culture contributed $46 billion to Canada’s economy in 2007, but the overall impact of the sector was a much broader $84.6 billion, according to a report from the Conference Board of Canada.
“That amounts to 7.4 percent of Canada’s gross domestic product, according to the report, released Tuesday.”
The Conference Board pointed out that the arts and related industries such as tourism support 1.1 million jobs in Canada.
Margaret Atwood made a similar point when she delivered the 2008 Hurtig Lecture in Edmonton. She responded to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s comment that “ordinary people” don’t care about “the arts.”
“ ‘Ordinary people,’ pack into the cheap seats at concerts and fill theatres where operas are brought to them live. The total attendance for ‘the arts’ in Canada in fact exceeds that for sports events. ‘The arts’ are not a ‘niche interest.’ They are part of being human.”
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