Richard Hennick - NDP

As the NDP candidate in Don Valley East, I want to thank you for asking these questions, and I apologize for taking so long to respond. I wanted to ensure that I could provide as informative a response as possible, and some important information was only released yesterday.

I think it's unfortunate that Canadian arts and culture have had such a low profile in this election so far.

1) Will your party commit to upholding the November 2005 federal commitment to a $342 million increase to arts funding over three years?

A) Personally I would certainly support this. I expect that my party does as well, but I cannot find specific mention of this in any campaign announcements or policy, so of course I cannot speak for the party.

2) Given the positive affect of arts programming on many aspects of Toronto's daily life including community volunteerism, youth engagement, economic development, employment, tourism and overall quality of life, conjoined with the fact that Toronto's artists fall in the top 25% of education levels and the bottom 25% of income levels, can you offer any concrete commitment from your party that will improve the environment for the City's artists.

A) The following is taken from official NDP policy, released yesterday:

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In keeping with these principles, in the next Parliament, we will work on the following key initiatives. ...

• Strengthen the status of Canada's artists by:
  - Introducing a system of tax averaging to provide fair and equitable tax
  treatment for Canadian artists.
  - Building on a model in Quebec, introduce an exemption for the first $30,000
  on copyright and certain royalty income.
  - Protecting children in the arts with minimum standards and trust fund rules
  for income earned as performers.
  
• Strengthen the arts in Canada by:
  - Providing increased funding for the Canada Council for the support of
  artists.
  
• Strengthen Canada's homegrown film and television production by:
  - Directing the CRTC to require clear, binding, monitored and enforced
  performance standards for broadcasters, including a significant and permanent
  increase in the production and broadcast of Canadian drama.
  - Reviewing and restructuring the CRTC to avoid the mixed mandates and
  conflicts of interest that undermine the role of the commission in promoting
  and protecting Canadian cultural industries.
  - Ensuring that Canadian television networks remain Canadian owned.
  - Providing sustained funding for the Canadian Television Fund and Telefilm
  Canada.
  - Enhancing federal film incentives to encourage film and television
  production.
  - Establishing a forum with film distributors to agree on targets and a
  strategy to screen and distribute domestic films in Canada.

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I hope that the members and supporters of the Toronto Arts Coalition will regard these NDP proposals and policies favourably, and vote accordingly.

Sincerely;

Richard Hennick

--
NDP Don Valley East
richardhennick@ndp.ca