Heritage minister defends arts funding plan
Canada's culture minister got a rough ride Monday over arts spending in an appearance before the parliamentary heritage committee.
James Moore outlined the more than $270 million in the budget he says is new spending on the arts, but he found himself having to defend cuts to arts funding that his predecessor made last year.
Bloc Québécois culture critic Carole Lavallée accused the Conservatives of making "savage" cuts to arts spending last year.
About $44.5 million was cut last September from arts programs, and two programs that helped artists travel overseas were eliminated.
Ads for CBC Radio?
Heritage Minister James Moore appeared to float the idea of advertising for CBC Radio at Monday's meeting of the parliamentary heritage committee.
Moore suggested advertising on CBC Radio One and 2 would be a solution to the financial pressures faced by the CBC.
He was responding to questioning by NDP MP Charlie Angus, who told Moore the CBC was under "a lot of pressure" because its allocation is not rising as fast as the cost of operating the public broadcaster.
MPs did not question him further on the issue, said Liberal Pablo Rodriguez.
"This seemed to come out of the blue," Rodriguez said. "No one asked him anything about it — we were so surprised."
Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla told Moore she's been inundated with emails from artists who feel they've been abandoned.
"People on the ground felt and continue to feel the cuts that have been made have not been made for purposes of efficiency, but actually against people or organizations that spoke out against the government," she said.
Opposition MPs on the heritage committee passed a motion Monday that will allow dozens of people to appear and talk about the impact of the cuts.
The Opposition called on Moore to release documents that detail why the programs were cut. He's refusing, saying they're protected by cabinet secrecy.
Liberal Heritage critic Pablo Rodriguez said he plans to table a motion with the committee on Wednesday demanding access to the documents explaining why the Conservatives cut arts funding last September.
"My opinion is that it is an ideological cut," Rodriguez said. "He's saying 'trust me' but he's not saying anything to back up his case."
Not politically motivated
Moore justified the cuts, saying the spending was inefficient.
"Trade Routes had a benefit of $2 million; that's less than 1/10th of one percentage point of all our spending on arts and culture. If that's all they can obsess about, I think we have a very strong record of spending taxpayers' dollars," Moore said.
But Moore said the cuts weren't politically motivated and there's money elsewhere for travel.
"We're spending $21 million in these funds I just described — that's more than any government in Canadian history — to support artists on the international scene," he said.
Moore said he was "continuing to work with arts and culture groups" to try to get a more efficient solution to funding of international touring.
He also faced questions about the new Canada Prize for the Arts, which has been controversial among some arts groups who believe it has drawn funding from other more important priorities.
The federal budget allocated $25 million to the prize, which will be awarded to international artists.
"Who did you meet with, how was the decision made to say we're going to support an international prize out of Toronto and not support the National Film Board?" asked NDP heritage critic Charlie Angus.
Angus also criticized a new $100-million fund for festivals, saying it is ripe for pork-barrel photo-ops, especially in Conservative ridings.
He pressed Moore to be open and accountable in how decisions on budget spending were made.