News

Arts cuts jeopardize jobs at home, MPs told

Posted by: Laurie McBurney on Thursday, March 19, 2009

By David Akin, Canwest News Service
March 10, 2009

Cuts the Conservative government made to programs that helped Canadian artists export their work now threatens Canadian jobs and puts the nation's international cultural influence in peril, several artists told MPs Monday.

Last summer, the Conservatives cancelled two programs, PromArt and Trade Routes, which contributed about $12 million per year to help Canadian performers reach international audiences.

At the time, a senior government official said the programs were being axed because some grant recipients included "a general radical," "a left-wing and anti-globalization think-tank," and a rock band that uses an expletive as part of its name.

On Monday, though, representatives of mainstream arts organizations argued at the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage in favour of restoring the programs on economic and cultural grounds.

"The impact of these cuts means cancelled tours, stalled contract negotiations, lost work weeks for artists, and the ultimate disappearance of Canadian art from the world stage," said Shannon Litzenberger, executive director of the Canadian Dance Assembly, representing about 500 professional dance troupes.

While the Conservatives did end those two programs, overall spending on arts and culture programs has increased compared to that of the previous Liberal government. Several Conservative MPs at the committee seemed frustrated that the artists complaining about the cuts to the export support programs did not acknowledge the government's overall support for the arts.

"I support (artists)," Manitoba MP Shelly Glover said after the meeting. "Our government supports them. The prime minister supports them. Regardless of what you think, our government has shown more commitment to the arts than any government before, and we are going to continue to do that."

However, the artists said federal spending largely supported domestic production and distribution of Canadian cultural products and no longer supported exports of Canadian work.