Responses to the Arts Funding Letter

Apr 14/09

Below is the history of responses and counter-responses to our original letter.

 

Mr. Danny Lineham, President

Island Artisans Association

Dear Mr. Lineham:

Thank you for your email expressing support for a strong and vibrant arts and culture community in British Columbia.

I agree that the arts and culture community provide significant social and economic benefits to British Columbia while enhancing our quality of life.  It is an honour for me to lead this ministry because of my belief in the importance of the arts.

To be clear, provincial funding for arts and culture will actually increase in 2009/10 over 2008/09 levels.  There will not be a funding reduction to the sector served by the B.C. Arts Council in the upcoming year.

We have recently committed supplementary funding of $7 million to the Arts Council for distribution in support of 2009/10 arts and cultural activities throughout the Province.  These funds, when combined with the voted 2009/10 grants budget of the Council, result in modestly increased funding being available to the sector supported by Council for the year.

While it is true that forecasts for 2010/11 and 2011/12 project reductions in overall arts and cultural expenditures, I have stated my commitment to finding a solution within the government's future budgeting processes to maintain the grants budget for the B.C. Arts Council.

Over the past few years, the B.C. Government has invested heavily in the arts and culture sector:

·       $114 million for the B.C. Arts Council since 2001.

·       $150 million for the BC150 Cultural Fund. The earned revenues from this permanent endowment support arts and cultural activities throughout the province. In its inaugural year, the fund will contribute an estimated $3.9 million in additional funding through the BC Arts Council.

·       $25 million to create the BC Arts Renaissance Fund, managed by the Vancouver Foundation.

The above are just a few examples of how Premier Campbell and the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts have emphasized the important role that arts and culture play in our community.

Our government is committed to supporting artists and the vibrant arts and cultural organizations that contribute to the vitality of communities throughout the Province.  However, given the world-wide economic circumstances, this is a budgeting process that is necessary in order to protect the interests of taxpayers while providing support for health, education and social programs that British Columbians depend on.

Thank you for taking the time to write.

Sincerely,

Bill Bennett

Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts

 

And the letter sent to Mr. Bennett in response:

The Honourable Bill Bennett
Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts
Province of British Columbia

Dear Minister,

Thank you for your office's reply to my letter regarding the drastic cuts in Arts and Culture funding by the B. C. Liberal government. However, it would have been nice if whichever one of your staff sent the response had actually read and responded to my letter, rather than sending what has all the earmarks of being a form letter sent out to any arts group that had the temerity to point out the irresponsibility and short-sightedness towards the arts in the latest Liberal budget. It is offensive that you would treat the views of myself, our members and the arts community at large with such little regard.

Just so we're clear: I did not write to express support for a strong and vibrant arts and culture community in British Columbia. I wrote to warn of the threat that community was under and to point out that by cutting funding to the arts your Liberal government is not only jeopardizing that community but also damaging the economy of all of B.C. I thought I had made it plain enough that even you could understand that, rather than being a cost to taxpayer, money given to the arts returns itself many times over to the people of British Columbia; that the arts, as a group, are one of the biggest industries in the country, and government support of the arts is one of the best "bangs for the buck" that you can find.

I find your letter simply repeats ad nauseam the same old line about how much you and your Liberal government support the arts (which you really don't) and tries to impress me with figures that are disingenuous to say the least.

To be (truly) clear, provincial funding for the arts will not increase in 2009/10. This is smoke and mirrors. I explained in my previous letter, if you would care to read it, how this money was really unspent money left over from the previous budget, and besides was not clearly all going to the arts anyway.

Your other figures, even if they are taken at face value, and even if they were targeted where they need to be, amount to a paltry sum when divided by not only the size of the arts community but by the number of years they are spread across. The simple fact remains that arts funding in this province amounts to a tiny fraction of a cent for every tax dollar in the budget. Total arts funding amounts to no more than a rounding error in budget calculations. You could remove arts funding entirely and it wouldn't make a noticeable difference in the total budget. This despite the fact that the arts employ more people than nearly any other industry in the province, in fact more people than many of industries combined. And, at the risk of repeating myself, money spent on the arts is bread cast upon the waters: It comes back manyfold. But then, you would have known this had you read my previous letter.

As disgusted as I am with the latest B.C. Liberal budget, I am infinitely more disgusted that you would have the audacity to treat my previous letter with the contempt of a form letter full of smoke and mirrors and platitudes. It clearly shows neither you nor your government has any grasp of the true importance of the arts, not only in our province but in the country as a whole.

I suppose this is the sort of arrogance we should have come to expect from the Campbell government, but just because we expect it doesn't mean we should accept it. If this is the best you can do, if you can't see past your ideological blindfold to grasp what should be one of the economic strong points of British Columbia, a province that has more artists per capita than anywhere else in Confederation, then perhaps someone who understands the situation properly should have a chance come May 12th.
 
Sincerely,
 
Danny Lineham
President, Island Artisans Association

 

I also received a phone call from the Official Opposition Arts and Culture Critic Spencer Herbert and from the office of my own MLA, Maurine Karagianis. They both expressed support for our position, and in fact Spencer Herbert pointed out he had risen in the House to say much the same things that were in our letter. He also pointed out that he had received some feedback from the arts community indicating that we shouldn't be making these economic arguments for the arts -- that there are a multitude of reasons the arts should be supported that have nothing to do with economic reasons and we should be stressing those. I have heard this argument many times over the years, and while it may contain a grain of truth, pursuing this path is sheer folly. Those who care about the cultural and moral and ethical and social reasons for which the arts should be supported don't need persuading, and those who don't will only be persuaded by the economic facts. Mr. Herbert and I agreed that trying to educated the voters and the government of the economic benefits of the arts is the best and perhaps only route to take.

I also forwarded the Minister's response and my subsequent response to Spencer Herbert and to my own MLA, Maurine Karagianis and received the following responses:

 

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