AN URGENT MATTER

Toronto City Council meets all this week (February 24-28) to decide the 2003 budget. Toronto Arts Council and Great Arts=Great City have been pressing Council to add $1.4 million to arts sector funding. A surprising number of councillors (perhaps not yet a majority) support this request, in whole or in part.

$1.4 million happens to be the amount lost to inflation since amalgamation. It's also a sufficient amount to use as leverage to generate additional arts sector operating revenues from other private and public sources, including other levels of government.

It is very important to realize that this $1.4 million is for operations. This money is the arts sector's lifeblood. It makes creation, management and marketing possible. Without it, no other form of public investment in the arts has value.

Hence, the urgency.

COALITION MEMBERS (now more than 1000 strong) CAN DO SOMETHING MEANINGFUL. Two things actually:

1) You can make sure that your views on this matter, and those of your family, neighbors, friends, fellow workers, patrons, audiences and community leaders, are known to your/their respective City Councillors. Councillors pay attention to what people in their own wards tell them. Tell them. E-mail links to your City Councillor are at the end of this Newsletter.

2) You can come down to City Hall during the budget debate and let your views be known. It is, of course, open to the public. It's your right to be there. Speak to your councillor and his/her staff. Let them know you're there and why.

One problem we face is knowing exactly when the arts budget will be debated. We'll try to deal with that by sending a supplementary e-mail to Coalition members as soon as we think we know date and time (it's almost certain to be this week).

One more thing: Some councillors are ardent supporters of the arts. Some are not. Ask them where they stand. Those who deserve praise would probably enjoy getting some.

The link above is a regular feature of the Newsletter. If you would like to send your political representatives a message you can click the link to go to an online resource of representatives’ contact information broken down by province. N.B. If you do write to your representative, please remember to give your address so he/she will know you are a constituent in their riding.

If you would like to write or call Toronto City Councillors, you can get a list with their contact information by clicking this link.