Reality check demonstrates that arts support has been cut under Tories
The Globe and Mail has done us all a favour by pursuing the federal Conservative party's claim that its support for arts and culture has increased during its time in power. The story in Saturday's paper, by reporter James Bradshaw, demonstrated that, depending on your definition of "culture", arts support has actually declined under the Tories.
Central to the article's research, spending on two kinds of "strategic outcomes" at Canadian Heritage was quite different. The first is what most people would normally call spending on arts and culture -- money spent on Canadians expressing their cultural experiences to each other and the world. The second is spending on promotion of Canada as a diverse society, intercultural understanding, citizen participation and sports.A close look at federal budget documents suggests that nearly $45-million in recent federal funding cuts are symptomatic of a larger trend under the Conservatives that has seen dollars gradually shifted away from arts and culture, and funnelled instead into other branches of the Department of Canadian Heritage that focus on the department's social mandate.
The analysis also calls into question the rosy picture the Conservatives have sought to paint about their support for the arts: Although there is some truth to the government's claims, they derive their force from a vague definition of “culture” – which can comprise everything from piano recitals to ESL classes.
Although this second arm undoubtedly deals with “Canadian culture,” broadly defined, it's at best misleading to include those dollars in Harper's proclamation about funding “the arts.”The article also make the point t
hat the overall cultural budget, combining funding for the Department of Canadian Heritage and its agencies and Crown corporations (National Gallery, Canada Council, National Arts Centre) has increased since the Conservatives came into power. But the Globe quotes Canadian Conference for the Arts figures that demonstrate that the Conservative are claiming credit for Liberal spending in 2005-06.Related stories and information:
posted by D. B. Scott at
9:27 am
2 Comments:
Okay--a nitpick. (And for the record, I am of course opposed to the arts funding cuts.) Bar graphs like the one at the top of this item make me crazy: the funding has dropped from 817 what? Million presumably--but there's no indication of units of measurement, so I'm just guessing. At any rate, it's dropped from 817 to 759.7, a drop of 57.3 or about 7%--but if you looked at the comparative height of the bars, you'd think it had dropped by 50-75%! Hey, I'm all for holding the Conservatives accountable, but that chart is so distorted that it's a kind of visual lie.
Fair comment; and as you'll see, I have amended the chart to a) show that this is in $millions and b) to have a 0 base, so that the relative relationships between the bars is clear. (A visual lie? I think that's a bit strong, but I'm happy to make such changes if they are reasonable and sensible.)
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