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 MAYDAY!!! MAYDAY!!  The liberals have released the election platform (red book,
part deux) with bright promises for the cultural sector.

-- Having gouged the Canada Council financially and morally, they now promise
$25 million per year in new funding for the next five years. No mention is
made of
how the damage done to the Councils reputation and credibility under their
mandate will be restored. Perhaps they feel that money can buy anything at
election time.

-- Having exposed the publishing sector to NAFTA and GATT repercussions for
subsidies, they now promise an increase of $15 million a year for the next five
years to support publishing. A new agency, the Canadian Publishing Development
Corporation will take over existing support programs from Canada Council and
the
Department of Canadian Heritage. Indications are that this support will be
market
driven and corporate oriented  rather than based on cultural innovation --
in other
words we  are promised exactly the sort of support that invites trade
challenges.
This is the same government who could not eliminate the GST on books, let alone
live up to their promise to eliminate it completely.

-- Remember that promise to provide stable multi-year funding to the CBC in the
last election ??? ( My thirteen year old is quick to point out that zero is
a very
stable number and they are getting there!!)  Well, no grand promises this time
except that "commitment to Canada's public broadcasting system will grow" once
they "restore health to the nations finances".  Don't hold your breath.

-- There is a promise of three million dollars a year for five years to support
production and availability of multimedia products on the information
highway. Note
that this is to be administered under the Cultural Industries Development Fund,
and takes a corporate model at a time when the real stuff is being created by
artists and cultural entrepreneurs who have shed such anacronisms.

-- Once again we have promises of trade support for cultural products. Perhaps
this time they will wake someone up at the Departmant of Foreign Affairs and
International Trade and tell them that this is a priority and not just
window dressing
for a Prime Ministerial junket.

-- Approaching the millenium, the liberals promise an additional $10 million to
commission new works of art to mark the occasion ( performance work by
members of the solar temple???) I am all for supporting the creation of new
work,
but having seen the purchase of real art suspended at the art bank, the regular
programs to commission original opera, dance and music eliminated by the
Canada Council, and the artist juries pared down to once a year ordeals, I
cannot
help be cynical of the governments committment and of Councils ability to veer
course an administrate such a program. A sustainable program that develops art
and audiences for a longer term is needed much more than is a millenium
blow-out.

Many major issues facing the cultural sector are noticable by their
abscence. No
mention is made of the vanishing infrastructure as non-profit and art service
agencies have been forced to close. No mention is made of the copyright issues
surrounding the use of cultural product on the information highway. No
mention is
made of the fact that a healthy cultural sector needs a broad base of the
population with discretionary income. A population dividied between rich and
poor,
with a vanishing middle class is not conducive to stable long term growth in
any
sector, least of all to the cultural sector  -- and that is something that a
millenium
splurge will not fix.

To be sure, the promise is there in the liberal platform, just as the last
time we
were promised the elimination of the GST, the renegotiation of the free trade
agreement, stable multi-year funding, etc.  A few good actions, a little
demonstration of an understanding by the Heritage Minister, an appointment
or two
that seemed to fit, any of these might have made a difference, instead we
are left
with more promises.



                           -- greg graham


The opinions are those of the author, a principal of Balandis Graham Consulting,
a private sector body, and should not be construed to represent the opinions of
any of the clients of the consulting firm, some of whom may have connections to
government bodies mentioned above.

Queries or comments may be e-mailed to Balandis-Graham Consulting at
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