The Arts Policy Diaries: Arts Day at the City a Call to Action for the Culture Conscious

TAPA Advocacy Chair Chris Lorway orienting Arts Day participants

On Monday, November 14, Councillors from all corners of Toronto participated in the 2nd Annual Arts Day at the City. Led by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA) along with Friends of the Arts, arts sector workers, patrons and supporters gathered at City Hall to meet with 25 City Councillors individually to discuss the importance of the arts for Torontonians.

Participants presented a strategic message about the economic and social impact of culture on our city, and reminded Councillors of the commitment they made to increase investment by 30% over time through the adoption of the Creative Capital Gains report in May. There were three consensus priorities conveyed: invest competitively in the sector, lead the way in championing our rich cultural assets, and make affordable cultural spaces available across the City.

To the credit of participants, Councillors of all persuasions expressed support for a strengthened cultural agenda at City Hall. For the most part they even agreed that cuts to the sector are not warranted. Though despite their affirmations, some were shy to fully commit their vote until the budget is presented and negotiations begin. It seems apparent that the highly politicized environment at City Hall is leaving Councillors feeling restless and unsure about the fate of many city services and culture is no exception.

Given the circumstances, Arts Day was a very timely effort by TAPA and Friends of the Arts who worked hard to rally voices around a unified message and secure meetings with key Councillors. On the heels of a contentious core city service review, City Council is on the precipice of the sure-to-be equally controversial budgeting process. On November 28th, City Manager Joe Pennachetti will present the budget, reflecting the overall 10% cut to spending mandated by Mayor Ford. It is expected that not all divisions will be treated the same, though many programs and services will loose the baseline 10%. Others will absorb either more or less. Sound familiar? Like Stephen Harper’s Deficit Reduction Action Plan, Ford’s budget goals force all departments to face cuts.

We are operating in an environment where the question is no longer IF there will be spending cuts, but how much and to what. It’s possible that the City will not see culture as a target, and tread softly on this already fragile portfolio. One could imagine that there may indeed be some efficiency savings to be found, though one could also imagine reinvesting these savings into the sector… a step that Ford won’t support if he is to achieve his bottom line.

But unlike Harper, Ford isn’t guaranteed the favour of his government and he must convince a majority of Councillors to support his agenda. And so begins the highly politicized bargaining process that will dominate discussions in Council Chambers come November 28th. Motion after motion will cause the budget to shift and change as each proposition is debated and voted on. The budget process also allows for public consultation. Budget deputations are slated for December 8th and this day is sure to be another overnight circus similar to the consultations surrounding the service review.

Despite whatever news we may receive November 28th from Pennachetti, until the process plays itself out fully, the outcome will remain anyone’s guess. An important window exists starting now until the budget is passed early in the New Year to engage in the debate. Councillors want to hear from their constituents and in the coming weeks it will be critical that the arts sector organize its efforts so culture priorities are heard across all wards from local constituents.

Here are some things you can do:
1 – Show Councillors that Torontonians love the arts and sign the Friends of the Arts petition. This petition has nearly 20,000 signatures and will be presented to City Council on November 29th. Already signed it? Send it to 10 of your favourite arts supporters and ask them to sign too! Posting on your Facebook page works too.

2 – Might as well join the circus and sign up to make a budget deputation on December 8th. Or, if your routine is a little rusty, simply make an appearance at City Hall that day to show your support for the other arts and culture acts. Mike Layton offers a user-friendly blog post that explains the process.

3 – Re-live Grade 7 all over again and make a trip to City Hall to visit your Councillor! Bring an arts supportive friend from your ward who doesn’t work in the arts. If Grade 7 was a bad year for you and you’d rather stay home, a phone call is the next best thing. Or an email. An email is ok too. Find your Councillor here.

Don’t forget to review key messages and priorities endorsed by Friends of the Arts (including the Toronto Arts Foundation, ArtsVote Toronto, Arts Etobicoke, TAPA, Creative Trust, Lakeshore Arts, Scarborough Arts, BeautifulCity.ca, Business for the Arts and Urban Arts).
KEY MESSAGES
FACTS and FIGURES

Once the city’s draft budget is announced November 28th, Friends of the Arts will prepare and distribute a new message reflecting new information. Stay tuned…!

Meanwhile enjoy these snaps from Arts Day at the City.

TAPA Executive Director Jacoba Knappen speaking at Arts Day orientation

Our fabulous volunteers!

Andrea Vagianos and TAPA Board Chair Meredith Potter

Chris Lorway and TAPA Advocacy Committee member Jenny Ginder

Chris Lorway and Jacoba Knappen

Councillors Kristen Wong-Tam, Josh Matlow, Michael Thompson, Mayor Rob Ford, Karen Kain, Councillors Gary Crawford and Mary Fragedakis at the declaration of National Ballet Week

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The Arts Policy Diaries: Ford Nation Fails to Deliver Hat Trick in Ontari

Toronto showed its true political colours in yesterday’s provincial election. With speculation that right-leaning Ford Nation would be the key to turning Ontario blue, last night’s results showed that in fact, this was not the case. At 53 MPP’s, the Liberals were just one seat shy of a third consecutive majority. While they did lose ground overall in the province, putting Dalton McGuinty “on a shorter leash” as Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak proclaimed in his post-election speech, not one seat was lost to the PC party in the Greater Toronto Area. And overall Liberal losses weren’t all PC gains. NPD supporters were thrilled to see a 7 seat gain over the 10 they previously held, nearly doubling their representation. Consider yesterday’s provincial election results against Toronto’s 2010 municipal election results, as depicted in these two maps.

Toronto's Ford Nation post 2010 municipal election

Ontario Election Results for the Greater Toronto Area

Given Ontario’s newly re-elected Liberal government, it begs the question – Does Ford Nation still exist? Since Mayor Ford took office on December 1, Forum Research has tracked his approval rating, reporting a solid 60% in late February to a declining 42% in mid-September. In fact, only 27% of Torontonians said they’d vote for Ford if an election were held tomorrow. By comparison, former Mayor David Miller enjoyed an 82% rating in May 2004, six months after he was elected.

Plummeting support for Mayor Ford is no doubt due to civic outrage at recently proposed service cuts. No gravy was found to balance tax savings and as Ford supporters are finding out, their loyalty was indeed captured with false promises. Cutting taxes while sustaining services is simply unattainable and with aggressive proposals on the table to cut, privatize and sell everything from daycares and libraries, to city park land and theatres, Torontonians are experiencing first-hand what an extreme right-wing political agenda looks like.

Toronto Service Cut Protest in Parkdale

At a time when civic engagement seems to be at an all time low (yesterday’s voter turnout was at a record low of 45%, down from 52% in 2007), these alarming cost-saving tactics attempted by the Ford administration have succeeded only at rallying the masses against him, creating perhaps one of the strongest displays of civic engagement Toronto has seen in a long time. Torontonians are NOT ok with radical proposals to decimate important services and they’re turning up in droves at City Hall to speak out against these quality-of-life-cutting measures.

While City Council is not a party-based administration, the Ford family has always made their Conservative allegiances very public – most recently hosting one of his famous barbeques, attended by both Hudak and Prime Minister Harper. A controversial You-Tube video (that has since been taken offline) captured Harper at said barbeque, commending Ford for his work in Toronto, saying: “We’ve starting cleaning up the left-wing mess federally in the area, Rob’s doing it municipally and now we’ve got to complete the hat trick and do it provincially as well”.

At the time, Ford was poised to publicly endorse Hudak, lending the support of Ford Nation to his campaign. But after the September polling results were made public, Mayor Ford and his dwindling disciples were viewed as more of a liability than an asset. So much so that Ford may have actually hindered the provincial PC campaign. It will be for the analysts to decide, but the results certainly speak for themselves. The GTA remains the Liberal/NDP fortress that it’s been for some time. Not even the Ford riding managed to elect a PC candidate. No hat trick for Ontario. Thanks at least in part to Rob Ford, Liberals take a ‘major minority’ and Dalton McGuinty becomes Ontario’s first three-term Premier. His victory speech HERE.

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The Arts Policy Diaries: Budget 2011 – An event of little consequence

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty

March 22, 2011

Today at 4pm EST, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty presented the 2011 federal budget. Major themes were, of course, the economy as well as strengthening Canada’s international reputation. Generally speaking, the budget was full of beans – tiny tidbits of something for everyone – clearly a pre-election strategy on the part of the Conservatives.

Arts and culture saw a small collection of one time and continued investments to individual organizations and programs including the CBC, Harbourfront Centre, The Royal Conservatory of Music, the Canada Periodical Fund and the Canada Media Fund, as well as the introduction of the Children’s Arts Tax Credit, which Harper himself mentioned in a pre-budget speech last week. For all of the arts-policy conscious folk out there, you’ll probably remember that the arts tax credit was one of the measures proposed in the Conservative election platform in 2008. After the Children’s Fitness Tax Credit was announced in 2006, arts advocates fought for the inclusion of arts activities, which were not included (with the exception of dance) when the tax credit was introduced in 2007, following national consultations to determine the eligibility criteria. So when the Harper government ran for re-election in 2008, their arts platform included only one measure in support of culture, which was to create a Children’s Arts Tax Credit, similar to the fitness tax credit already in place.

It may also be worth noting that Budget 2011 is the first post-recession budget without a shiny economic stimulus package attached to it, since as of March 31st, Canada’s Economic Action Plan will expire. No more strategic injections of cash to create jobs and keep industries afloat, which means that Canadians will probably start to feel the recession pain more acutely.

For arts and culture, this means no more marquee festival program and no more extra cash for cultural spaces (though the ongoing allocation for that program will continue at least to 2015). The arts legacy of the economic action plan was to be the infamous Canada Prizes and two years after the announcement, there has been no word from the Government on this front. Have the Canada Prizes silently disappeared? What happened to the $25 million?

But, before we get all excited/angry/annoyed, let’s not forget that with so many questions of confidence on the table that so surely favour a spring election, this budget may be of NO consequence at all. Basically, if the government is defeated in the coming days, the budget becomes the Conservative party election platform and Canadians go to the polls this May for the third time in five years.

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The Arts Policy Diaries: Does Canada Need an Arts Research Think Tank?

Where do governments obtain the information that fuels their policy and investment decisions? If you look too closely at this question, you might start to cry. Political decision-making is indeed a complex game with many motivations and agendas at play that are not always grounded in ethics and professional integrity. But after someone hands you a tissue, you might start to think about what information is available to decision-makers in the process of considering new investment and policy initiatives.

I would venture to say that most information that informs government decision-making remains a mystery to the average citizen. Meaning that when governments engage in decision-making process, citizens are not privy to most of the information that is considered. We don’t know who politicians are meeting with on any given issue (except registered lobbyists who must log their interactions with decision-makers), what research they’re consulting, how analysts and policy advisers are interpreting the information, what agendas are at play or what courses of action are being contemplated. This information is highly confidential, and governments do not have to disclose how they arrive at their decisions.

Flash back to August 2008 when the federal Conservatives cut funds to international touring and market development programs, ProMart and Trade Routes. These program cuts were the result of a government-wide strategic review process that deemed the programs to be ‘administratively ineffective’. The infamous report produced in the process of the strategic review – the one that no doubt explains in detail the alleged ineffectiveness of these programs – is not in the public domain. It was never released, nor does it have to be as the information it contains is protected.

While the average citizen is not privy to government intelligence, we do, in our fair democracy, have a right and duty to contribute to government decision-making by expressing our views. And we do. Well, some people do. Sometimes.

In the arts, we tend to participate by joining organizations like unions, coalitions, alliances, service organizations, assemblies or associations. These groups are at times industry-based and at times issue-based. Usually we belong to more than one of them…because we have a lot of them in the arts! Through these vehicles, we have a chance to engage with other members, express our views, debate relevant issues and (hopefully) arrive at a position that can be presented to decision-makers on our behalf.

Experience tells us that politicians are influenced when citizen groups have at least one of the following:
1. strong political capital (votes),
2. the ability to sway public opinion (influence votes), or
3. a compelling case that aligns with government agendas.

I would argue that the arts sector (broadly speaking) does have political capital based on the sheer size of our industry. But in a party-based system, we are generally predictable voters and let’s face it, a right-winged government or politician is not going to advance an arts agenda because they think they’re going to win the arts vote.

In the second case, the 2008 federal election proved that we have some ability to sway public opinion and influence other voters. This is perhaps most obvious in Quebec, where the cultural agenda is not sector-specific, but an expressly important issue to a broad base of citizens, for obvious reasons. The reaction in Quebec to Harper’s dismissive attitude toward the arts during that campaign is perhaps still the reason why today the arts have not seen further cuts by his government.

But in the third case, the arts sector is struggling to deliver the goods. While we have made many arguments and presented many cases, some more compelling than others, we are lacking in several ways. The first is that we don’t always align our positions with the goals of Government. In our current environment federally, this can be a considerable challenge. But, without mutual benefit for the sector and Government, there’s no way to move forward.

The second is that we’re more divided than united. We’re improving in this regard (the recent Arts Day on Parliament Hill organized by the Canadian Arts Coalition was a big step) but we have a long way to go to really find common cause. When we don’t unite around a position, we leave it to politicians to decide (ahem, copyright bill, anyone?).

The final challenge for us is that we are lacking solid, objective and credible research to really support our case. And here I return to my title question – does Canada need an arts research think tank?

One of the gems of information that I hear politicians cite often is that the arts and culture sector contributes over $46 billion to Canada’s GDP. With the airtime it’s had, you’d think that this golden statistic came from a study initiated by the arts sector. But no, it came from a report produced by the Conference Board of Canada. An independent source not connected to the arts sector or to Government. Sort of like the kind of report that might be produced by an arts policy research centre perhaps?

The kind of centre that I’m contemplating is one that exists independently from government or citizen-based interest group agendas. A place where the best and brightest thinkers would take stock of the ecology of the arts in Canada and assess whether the public and market-based systems that help to keep it healthy and vital are working optimally. Where are the weak links? What policy initiatives could strengthen us? Are current policies reflective of current practice? Where could new investment be best placed? What are other countries doing?

I am curious about such centres that exist outside of Canada. There are many of them. In the United States the Aspen Institute, Princeton’s Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies and Bill Ivey’s Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy, at Vanderbilt University are among the most popular. The UK has several university-based research centres as well as Demos – a political think tank driven by international thought-leader John Holden. In Germany there is ERICARTS – European Research Institute for Comparative Cultural Policy and the Arts and Australia has the Cultural Development Network and the Centre for Cultural Research at the University of Western Sydney. I could go on.

These centres are adding high quality research to the information pool that, I imagine, contributes greatly to the understanding of the arts sector in those countries, for the benefit of the public, government and for the sector itself. Credible studies, free of political and even industry motives are integral to good decision making for all potential stakeholders.

Over the next year, I hope to investigate this question more deeply, researching models of such thinking centres, understanding their impact and the role they play in public policy discourse. Stay tuned to hear about what I discover.

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The Arts Policy Diaries: Why Rob Ford Won’t be Toronto’s Next Mayor

With Election Day less than 72 hours away, it’s hard to know what more to say about the campaign. If you’re still an undecided voter, you need only to click on, flip through or Google search any local publication, blog, or candidate to find a plethora of commentary, policy positions, advertisements, editorials and opinions. At this point, the mayoral candidates in particular have pulled out all the stops. Yes folks, it’s sheer propaganda from here on in. Endorsements from major newspapers, blitz advertising, candidates attacking each other during debates… It’s a sh*t show, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to wade through the sh*t.

In fact, only in the last couple of weeks have the more prominent news-makers begun reporting Ward candidate positions. If you haven’t already, I suggest you take a look at who your options are because we don’t just vote for a Mayor, you know, we also vote for a Councillor AND a School Board Trustee (who knew!). www.artsvotetoronto.ca

So, instead of writing yet another piece about how to decide which candidate is more progressive and whether it’s a good idea to vote strategically or ideologically, just for fun, I’m going to attempt to predict who will be the next Mayor of Toronto, and explain why I think I’ll be right come Monday night.

I’m going to take a confident position (put it on the line, as it were) and say that George Smitherman will be our next Mayor. It might be because I’ve mentally blocked out the possibility that Ford could win, or conceded to the polls that show Pantalone in a distant third place. (Yesterday’s Leger Marketing poll results, reported by the Globe and Mail put Smitherman in the lead at 31%, Ford at 30% and Pantalone at 10% of the vote. An additional 18% are still undecided.)

But no, actually, my thinking is based most substantively on how our last federal election unfolded and how I perceive the true character of Torontonians. Allow me to explain…

It’s not hard to see that when Toronto finally narrowed the race to three front running individuals – Ford, Smitherman and Pantalone – that these three cats clearly orient themselves according to our three national political parties. In fact, the resemblance is uncanny.

Ford’s ‘Stop the gravy train! Cut taxes!’ motto mimics Harper’s 2006 election motto to ‘Cut the GST!’

And Joe, with his big green buttons and outright endorsement by Jack Layton isn’t shying away from his progressive NDP orientation.

Smitherman’s a former Liberal Cabinet Minister – it’s no secret. He and Ignatief are the shape shifters. They look for a balanced approach that will satisfy both the left and right leaning voter. Thankfully, Smitherman’s image is an improvement over Iggy’s.

Conservative, Liberal and NDP (and the Bloc) have become a kind of classification system that groups the diverse beliefs and values that characterize most Canadians – also known generally as Right, Centre and Left (and Separatists).

Ford, a clear great big ‘C’ Conservative is gathering more support than progressive voters would like to admit – a ‘surprise’ not unlike the one in 2006 when we ousted the Liberals and elected a federal Conservative minority government. (Currently, Parliament is 37% Conservative, 26% Liberal and 18% NDP). Using this as a gauge, one could fairly assume that Ford has a fighting chance to become His Worship (shudder). But, let’s not forget that in the 2006, and 2008 elections, it was NOT the Toronto vote that most affected this big C win.

When you look at the voting results from that same election for Toronto, those 22 MP’s that represent Toronto were nearly ALL Liberal, with only two ridings electing NDPers (downtown core ridings Toronto-Danforth and Trinity-Spadina). 90% Liberal, 10% NDP and that’s right, 0% Conservative. Provincially, it’s much of the same. Liberal, Liberal and more Liberal.

So how is it that Torontonians, who are clearly on the progressive side of Centre could elect a hard core Conservative as Mayor? It’s likely that the higher than typical levels of support for an ideology so uncharacteristic of Torontonians is a knee-jerk reaction to a long period of time with a very progressive, card-carrying NDP as Mayor. If it’s true that Torontonians are mostly Liberal, then most don’t support the Right, but most also don’t support the far Left. Ford has gained support by placing himself in clear counterpoint to leftist NDP values, and it’s been working.

However, given this evidence, my progressive-voting friends, I have not lost hope that Toronto is collectively, at it’s heart, on the progressive side of Liberal, and when it comes down to it on Monday night, I believe our true colour will shine. Purple! Which is actually red, with just a little blue mixed in.

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