It’s 6pm as I’m writing this from the NYCC – that would be the North York Civic Centre – former home of the North York City Hall at 5100 Yonge Street. Tonight is the first of two evenings of city budget deputations – an opportunity for citizens to present their views and ideas on how city tax dollars should be spent over the coming year. A first budget proposal was released by the Budget Committee on January 10th and this document has formed the basis for consultation and debate. After public deputations, the full city council will have the opportunity to debate and propose amendments before the budget is ultimately approved.
New this year, deputations are not taking place at City Hall – no doubt a symbolic gesture on the part of Mayor Ford, who has split the Budget Committee into two sub-committees and scheduled two pairs of concurrent public hearings outside of the downtown core. The first of these sessions are today in both North and East York. Tomorrow’s deputations will take place in Scarborough and York (near Etobicoke).
Budget Committee members in attendance at North York include Doug Ford (Chair of the deputations process), Frank Di Giorgio, Peter Milczyn, Chin Lee and John Parker. Other Councillors are also able to sit in on the deputations and even ask questions of the deputants. Several were present here including former Budget Chair Shelly Carroll, Doug Holyday, Jay Robinson, David Shiner, Karen Stintz, Anthony Perruzza, and John Fillion, among others.
Toronto Arts Council President Karen Tisch and Executive Director Claire Hopkinson were first up. They began by positioning their message as one that represents the entire Toronto arts sector, having collaboratively designed recommendations together with the Majors* and Local Arts Service Organizations**. These recommendations are as follows:
That the City’s Budget Committee:
1 – Commit to reaching the per capita funding target of $25 by 2013
2 – Commit to ensuring that billboard tax revenue is fully directed towards arts programming
Given the nature of the new administration, Claire and Karen’s defending arguments brought to life the ways in which Toronto artists and arts organizations contribute to every aspect of the city. They spoke about the importance of a vibrant cultural sector to Toronto’s economy, in particular in terms of tourism and international competitiveness. They outlined how new investment would increase access to arts and culture in all of Toronto’s neighbourhoods and reminded Councillors of the City’s commitment (made first in 2003 under Mel Lastman) to increase investment to $25 per capita. They presented employment data and statistics on audiences, ticket sales and volunteerism.
They also illustrated how government investment leverages private sector revenues as well as earned income. For every dollar the city invests, $6 is leveraged in private revenues and $8 in earned income. They pointed to Toronto’s low per capita investment in the arts relative to other major Canadian and North American centres. Toronto’s $18 per citizen pales in comparison to Montreal’s $32 and Vancouver’s $26, and is less than 1/3 the investment that is made by most major American centres. In fact, in New York City, local arts investment is the highest among all levels of government, superseding the sum total of the federal arts allocation.
Finally Karen and Claire reminded Councillors of the efforts of the youth-led alliance, BeautifulCity.ca, who worked together with City Council over the past five years to secure new city revenues intended to boost arts investment.
Councillor John Parker asked about NYC investment comparisons and requested further detail be forwarded to the Committee. Doug Ford wanted to see a breakdown of which of the 100,000 arts jobs cited were in the downtown core vs. the boroughs…
Other arts deputants included Christine Harris and Aisha Farah of the Scarborough Arts Council and Laurie-Shawn Borzovoy, Chair of Urban Arts Toronto. The collaborative effort of Toronto’s arts community has also coordinated arts sector speakers at the other three deputation sessions, the last two of which will take place January 20th, from 6-9pm.
And a final word to all you Torontonians out there… don’t forget to talk to your Councillor about those two recommendations mentioned above. Click HERE to find their contact info.
_____
*The ‘Majors’ refers to arts organizations who receive direct funding from the city, outside of the Toronto Arts Council’s budget. These organizations include the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canadian Opera Company, Caribana, Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Luminato, National Ballet School, National Ballet of Canada, Pride Toronto, Toronto International Film Festival and Toronto Symphony Orchestra
**Local Arts Service Organizations include Arts Etobicoke, Lakeshore Arts, Scarborough Arts Council, UrbanArts Community Arts Council and the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts.
Shannonlitz's Blog 