Note : This e-mail bulletin is supplied free of charge to independant artists. Associations making use of information in these bulletins should consider a contribution to its maintenance. 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 [log in to unmask] Our phone number is (819) 684-3942, Fax is (819) 684-9227, and snail mail goes to 21 Forest, Aylmer, Qc, J9H 4E3 .