Source : Globe & Mail

The federal Liberals unveiled their arts and culture platform Saturday, pledging to not only reverse millions in Tory cuts, but to also boost arts and culture spending by $530 million over the next four years.

These promises transformed Canadian arts and culture into an election issue - a move the struggling Liberals hope will draw support from an arts community scarred by a recent spate of cuts to arts and culture programs.

“This announcement underscores what's at stake in this election,” said Liberal spokesman Daniel Lauzon. “Our vision of this country is much more generous than the Conservatives. That comes across in our commitment to arts and culture.”

At a Montreal campaign stop Saturday, Liberal leader Stéphane Dion promised to reverse $45-million in Tory arts cuts and double the budget for the Canada Council for the Arts to $360-million annually. He also plans to increase the video tax credits by 30 per cent to $160-million and give $25-million to the Canadian Digital Media Strategy - a program to train skilled workers. Another $126-million will go to international arts promotion and museum assistance programs will see $16-million.

The Liberals highlighted economic plusses of paying into the arts.

Figures from the Conference Board of Canada show the arts and culture community rakes in $84-billion annually - about seven per cent of Canada's GDP.

“We're talking about big bucks here,” said Liberal heritage critic Denis Coderre. “We're not talking about an expense, we're talking about an investment.”

Brian Anthony of the Directors Guild of Canada says he's “delighted” these issues will be on the ballot.

“In recent federal elections there's been very little discussion of cultural issues. When you look at the size of the cultural community [an estimated 1.1 billion people]...this is a big chunk of the economy,” he says.

But the Conservative camp said Mr. Dion's announcement is nothing but a vote grab and suggested he check his math.

“I just don't think it's credible,” says Kory Teneycke, communications director for the federal Conservatives. “He is going to have to explain where he's going to get all this money. Is it going to be through raising taxes or is it going to be through deficits?”

NDP heritage critic Bill Siksay also criticized the Liberals for under-funding the CBC when they were in power. His party's arts and culture policy, to be released with the party platform in the coming days, will do away with Bill C-10 and offer stable long-term funding for the national broadcaster, said Mr. Siksay. The Greens will also offer more long-term stable funding to the CBC and other arts and culture programs.

In the same weekend announcement, Mr. Dion accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper of plotting to gut the national broadcaster.

“I challenge Stephen Harper to be honest with Canadians and admit that he dreams of shutting down the CBC,” he said.

But Mr. Harper brushed off the suggestion from his campaign stop in Iqaluit, Nunavut.

“Our government put in about $60-million for the CBC,” he said. “The only hidden agenda in this campaign are the efforts of Mr. Dion to hide his carbon tax agenda and his intentions of running a deficit.”

With a report from the Canadian Press

© Globe and Mail

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