Party Platforms
Green Party of Canada
Arts and Culture Policy Points
Arts and Culture Policy Points
While the major contributions made by Arts and
Culture to Canada’s economy are clearly quantifiable and
beneficial, the Green Party of Canada recognizes that the qualitative
impact of Arts and Culture to Canadian Society is priceless. At
every level of our society, arts and cultural activities help
define our identities individually and collectively and share
them with the world. From surreal circus to incisive films, renowned
performers and musicians, Canadians are experiencing cultural
breakthroughs on the international arts scene…
Green Party Commitments:
-
Increase funding to all of Canada’s Arts
and Culture organizations including The Canada Council for the
Arts, Telefilm Canada, orchestras, theatres and publishers.
The goal will be to make increases in this sector commensurate
with increases in support over the years for other sectors of
the economy such as transport, the auto industry, health care,
and the oil and gas industry.
-
Provide stable base-funding for the CBC so it
can continue to provide quality Canadian content television
and radio programming in both official languages to all Canadians.
-
Ensure that the Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) reserves more bandwidth
for independent and non-profit stations.
-
Enact legislation that requires cinemas and
video chains to have at least 20 % Canadian content.
-
Restore and improve arm’s length principles
in the governance of arts and cultural institutions and agencies
under the federal jurisdiction. In keeping with such a position,
we believe that the heads of Canada’s cultural organizations
such as the CRTC, Canada Council, CBC and Telefilm Canada should
not be appointed by the political party in power but by an arm’s
length committee made up of competent people representative
of the various diverse stakeholders in Canadian society.
-
Eliminate current legislation before the Senate
that would give politically-appointed censors the right to deprive
films of the right to a tax credit if their content is deemed
“unfit.” In such a context films by some of Canada’s
most internationally celebrated film-makers -- including Cronenburg
-- would likely never have been made.
-
Increase support for community arts programs
and facilities across Canada by establishing stable base-funding
at a set percentage of the federal budget.
-
Equalize federal funding for Arts and Culture
among provinces, territories and municipalities to make it consistent
with the provinces and municipalities that have the highest
current standards.
-
Provide incentives to all provinces and territories
to restore and improve Arts and Culture components to schools
and extra-curricular activities not only in urban but also in
rural areas.
-
Extend income tax relief and incentives to artists
(on the very successful models established by Ireland and the
city of Berlin). Doing so will:
-
encourage artists to settle in Canada and
build businesses here
-
result in other (usually) white collar “clean”
industries that follow the arts jobs and dollars
-
help to provide meaningful jobs to university
and college graduates
-
enrich schools and their offerings thereby
attracting immigrants to settle in rural areas
-
revitalize and discover talent in communities
where traditional industries are declining and young people
are leaving
-
Follow and implement recommendations of Canadian
Conference of the Arts in order to enable artists to access
various social programs including Employment Insurance, Worker’s
Compensation and Canada Pension Plan.
-
Change the Canada Revenue Act to allow arts
and culture workers to benefit from a tax averaging plan that
will take into account the fact that lean years often precede
and follow the good year when a show is produced, a book is
published and a grant or a prize is won.
-
Protect Canada’s cultural identity during
trade negotiations.
-
Restore the government provided transport service
(eliminated by the Harper government) to allow the transport
of exhibitions between museums and galleries;
-
Protect the copyright for artists such that
they are not surrendered to museums and galleries in the process
of permitting exhibits;
