RE: Community Gaming Grants Review Report Government response

Excuse my frankness, yet I feel it is necessary to write this open letter

Two weeks ago Kevin Falcon admitted publicly the government did wrong by arts and culture and they need to make things right.

This is astounding. The government is vulnerable, desperate and seeking to boost their popularity rating

The Premier followed through on her promise to act on the Skip Triplett Report.

However, we need to let them know the solution to the gaming revenue issue is unacceptable. Yes, it was right to restore eligibility for many organizations but a frozen amount for 4 years means severe cuts for everyone.

The time is auspicious to tell them the truth. It probably should be $635M not $135M for the non-profit sector.

They also need to rectify their cruel errors with arts and culture grant cuts

We have an opportunity to make our case before the next budget. so the time is indeed right. Let us urge them to do the right thing, knowing they are listening now.

I know the arts and culture sector feels bruised, shamed, impotent, despairing and victimised. but we need to hold our heads high and fight for what is right.

We cannot let them buy us off with this unacceptable and unjust solution. If they succeed and we don’t complain they will win the PR battle and we will have lost an opportunity.

I urge you to write letters to the editor. For example there could be more responses to Pete McMartin’s excellent column in the Vancouver Sun. The Georgia Straight is open to our opinions. Community newspapers will print letters and the other media will take notice.

I know this is a busy time and too soon after Christmas, yet I believe we can turn this around.

For the sake of all the people whose lives are enriched by the non-profit sector, we need to seek justice now in the media and in social media

Let’s get the campaign going!

Carpe diem

With love and admiration,

Colin Miles

Friends,
I think the arts and culture and non-profit sector  in BC has been under siege and is so relieved to have some resolution of the gaming revenues issue that it has lost its sense of outrage.

Although the Triplett Report has much value, I was disappointed he rejected the option of allotting a percentage of gaming  revenues to charities.  A frozen reduced and capped amount is little to celebrate.

We are underwhelmed and being too polite about the government response, I think

I hope others will respond to Pete McMartin’s insightful column

The non-profit sector and all it accomplishes is too important to  be demeaned this way.  We can be respectful of public servants but this is a matter of justice and we need to tell them their solution is just not good enough.  My two cent’s worth.

I am pleased the SUN printed my letter but they changed my words from “billions” to  “millions”.

If someone wants to take it from here we might coin the term the “two billion dollar theft.”

Read Pete McMartin’s column: Government slight of hand does not fool charities.

Following is the response from the Alliance for Arts and Culture:

Alliance Responds To Gaming Grant Announcements

Premier Christy Clark today released Scott Triplett’s Community Gaming Grant Review report and announced some good news for the arts community.

”We are very encouraged by Premier Clark’s announcement of increases to funding and eligibility for BC Gaming Grants,” saidAlliancefor Arts and Culture executive director Rob Gloor in responding to today’s announcement.

“The premier has described the $135 Million grant budget as the ‘new base’, and added that stabilizing arts funding has been a priority for her government and a personal commitment since taking office as premier.  There is no doubt that today’s announcement will have a very positive impact in communities across BC through the work of hundreds of organizations. 

“TheAlliancefor Arts and Culture is eager to review the fine details of the funding and associated allocations process in the context of Mr. Triplett’s report. The arts community has endured tremendous funding challenges over the past three years, and we are grateful to receive some news of positive steps,” Mr. Gloor concluded. 

ANNOUNCEMENT HIGHLIGHTS

• The Province has increased gaming grants in its annual base budget to a total of $135 million, beginning this fiscal year.
   
• That will mean $15 million more in gaming grants than originally budgeted for 2011/12.
   
• This funding will reach right across the province with a large part going outside of the Lower Mainland to more than 2,000 organizations in hundreds of communities.
   
• Groups focusing on adult arts and sports, animal welfare and environmental concerns will be eligible for community gaming grants.
   
• These reinstated groups will receive a total of $8 million. The Province will conduct a special intake of applications from Jan. 16 to Feb. 13 to ensure these groups are eligible for funding this fiscal year. Interested organizations will be required to apply online.
   
• Of this $8 million, $6 million will be allocated for adult arts, culture and sport organizations, while environmental organizations will be allocated $2 million.
   
• This funding will benefit non-profit organizations that deliver key community services such as animal shelter organizations, fish and wildlife associations, lake and stream stewardship societies, district arts councils, museum societies, and theatres.
   
• The remaining $7 million will be used to increase funding to groups that have experienced reductions during the past three years, including those responsible for fairs, festivals, youth arts and culture, community service, the B.C. Senior Games and community education organizations.
• Funding will benefit community-focused organizations such as Kiwanis and Lions Club, heritage and folk music societies, non-profit child development societies, youth music schools and pipe bands.
   
• The Province is also exploring options for introducing multi-year funding in the coming years for groups that have achieved earned independence through sound fiscal practices.

Today’s government media release can be found here.
THE REVIEW

Between August 11th and Sept.16th, 2011 Mr. Triplett held Community Forums in 19 locations across BC. A total of 1,229 British Columbians attended these forums and 336 people made oral presentations

The full Community Gaming Grant report can be found here.

The community presentations can be found here.

- END -

In many ways, especially for service organizations, they face a very similar situation. In their case, their subscribers are their members.

Here is the last paragraph from the article.

“It will take time for the economic weight of those users to affect the organizational form of the paper, but slowly slowly, form follows funding. For the moment at least, the most promising experiment in user support means forgoing mass in favor of passion; this may be the year where we see how papers figure out how to reward the people most committed to their long-term survival.”

The key phrase was “form follows funding.”

This is a complex article, but well worth it. You can read it here.

As public funding dries up I think arts organizations will need to look at what their “form” is and will be forced to sink or swim on a new model. Yes, we can scream and kick, but without public funding support the form of the organizations (the way they’ve operated) that have followed the funding are going to be shaken.

In Canada, here is what the Federal Minister of Heritage James Moore said in a Vancouver Sun article: “Moore underlined the fact organizations matching government support with significant private funding will insulate themselves best from cuts and prosper most during the Conservative era.” Full story here.

My read on this? Arts funding has always been political. The pendulum has shifted and we have in Canada a Conservative Government (and in BC a conservative government even though their name is “Liberal”) that a) doesn’t like funding arts and b) wants everything to be run like a business.

The good news is, “Culture” will not die because it’s not funded by public money. They know that. It just won’t be the culture that we who work in the culture business want to hear or see.

We will continue to make the solid arguments about why funding arts is valuable both socially and economically and we’ll adapt. Some will suffer and die, others will thrive. We are very lucky to be able to even have this discussion and debate.

-

PS – we shouldn’t overlook the fact that it is the Department of Canadian Heritage. Heritage being the main word. The current Government really likes “Heritage” whereas the arts are about moving forward. Perhaps it’s no wonder they take money from progressive programs to pay for multi-million dollar War of 1812 projects.

Arts Advocacy BC sent a short questionnaire posing this question to leadership candidates of the provincial Liberal and New Democratic Party.

“Will you honour the 1999 Memorandum of Agreement to allocate 33.3 percent of gaming revenues to non-profits, or agree to re-negotiate that agreement in good faith?
”

While NDP and Green candidates answered they would honour the memorandum, Christy Clark answered.  “These are difficult economic times and I want to make sure that we maintain our fiscal discipline. At the same time, groups who count on gaming grants 
as a source of revenue need some assurance, which is why I will ask a retired judge to chair a review of the way gaming grants are allocated to all groups in the province to ensure there is a stable and sustainable funding formula.
 The arts community will have a voice at the table during the review of gaming grants as we all work to create a funding system that works for government and the groups that count on the funding.”

Since the Campbell Government abrogated the Memorandum of Agreement, 8,000 organizations in the non-profit sector have been decimated and it is estimated 1,500 non-profit organizations have gone under.  Arts and culture have been doubly jeopardized by savage cuts in grants.

As promised, Premier Clark appointed Skip Triplett to chair a Community Gaming Grant Review.  1,700 British Columbians made submissions and the Report was delivered October 31.  It was supposed to be released to the public by year-end, but the Government has reneged on this promise.   Why the delay?  Does the report perhaps embarrass the government?

Colin Miles

307—1683 Adanac Street
Vancouver, BC
V5L 2C7

August 24, 2011

Mr. David Podmore, Chair
BC Pavilion Corporation
Box 16, Suite 850
999 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC
V6C 2W2

Dear Mr. Podmore:

I draw your attention to a magnificent new concert hall which is about to open in Montreal.

http://www.osm.ca/en/index_nouvelles_liste_detail.cfm?NewsID=320

As conductor Kent Nagano says in the brief video, a concert hall “reflects the identity of the community.” Why not consider a similar facility for the provincial lands around BC Place in Vancouver?

Vancouver is sorely in need of new exciting and contemporary cultural venues—a concert hall, an opera house, a lyric theatre, etc. What a statement such a development would make to the world about our city!

We have already noted the significance of similar developments in Oslo, Valencia, Copenhagen, and Miami Beach. Why not add Vancouver to this list of progressive cities?

Sincerely yours,

Tom Durrie, executive director
Arts Advocacy British Columbia
www.artsadvocacybc.ca

Copies to:
Mr. Warren Buckley, President and CEO, BC Pavilion Corporation
Hon. Christy Clark, Premier
Hon. Ida Chong, Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development

AABC board member David Stewart is presenting the following four points to the Castelgar forum on Monday,  August 15th:

1. Streamline the application and reporting process for organizations whose budgets are under $50,000 per year
2. Re-structure eligibility to include adult engagement in Arts, Culture, and Heritage activities
3. Use gaming grants to increase the Province’s funding to Arts, Culture, and Heritage to at least the National Average. BC has, for too long had the questionable distinction of ranking thirteenth of all the provinces and territories when it comes to arts and heritage funding.
4. Re-introduce and strengthen options for multi-year funding to enhance the sustainability of charitable organizations.

David is president of both the  BC Choral Federation and the  North Kootenay Lake Arts & Heritage Council.

You’ll find information about the review at this government website. Be sure to follow the links to location nearest you, how to make a written submission, etc. It’s also informative to Google “BC Gaming Grant Review” and see what other people are saying about it. Is this a serious request for citizen recommendations–or just the usual Liberal window dressing?

Don’t forget to see:  ACTION ALERTS

We value your comments.

singers, staff and board:

Here’s something for when you have a quiet moment. There is a rough (machine) translation into English after the Spanish and then a Youtube site to click on.

I suggest you have a kleenex handy.

Even in Italy and other European countries, governments are using their self-inflicted financial crises as an excuse to gut their arts and culture infrastructures. Muti’s protest is singularly compelling -  and inspiring to those of us who tire of the unending battle against the many short-sighted enemies of the arts.

Thanks to Vivienne and David, who passed it on to me.

Jon

Italia finalmente despertó. Les dejo saborear esto. Es conmovedor.

El último 12 de marzo, Silvio Berlusconi debió enfrentar la realidad. Italia festejaba el 150 aniversario de su unificación y en esa ocasión se dio en la ópera de Roma la ópera “Nabucco” de Giuseppe Verdi, dirigida por el maestro Ricardo Muti. Nabucco es una obra tanto musical como política: evoca el episodio de  la esclavitud de los judíos en Babilonia, y su famoso coro “Va pensiero” es el canto de los esclavos oprimidos. En Italia, este canto es el símbolo de la búsqueda de libertad del pueblo, que a fines del siglo XIX -época en que se escribió la ópera – estaba oprimido por el imperio Habsburgo, al que combatió hasta la creación de la Italia unificada.

Antes de la representación, Gianni Alemanno, alcalde de Roma, subió al escenario para pronunciar un discurso denunciando los recortes al presupuesto de cultura que hizo el gobierno, a pesar de que Alemanno es miembro del partido gobernante y viejo ministro de Berlusconi. Esta intervención política, en un momento cultural de los más simbólicos para Ialia, produciría un efecto inesperado, puesto que Berlusconi en persona asistía a la representación.

Relatado luego por el Times, Ricardo Muti, director de la orquesta, contó que fue una verdadera velada de revolución: “Al principio hubo una gran ovación en el público. Luego comenzamos con la ópera. Se desarrolló muy bien hasta que llegamos al famoso canto Va pensiero. Inmediatamente sentí que la atmósfera se tensaba en el público. Hay cosas que no se pueden describir, pero uno las siente. Era el silencio del público que se hacía sentir. Pero en el momento en que la gente se dio cuenta que empezaba el Va Pensiero, el silencio se llenó de verdadero fervor. Se podía sentir la reacción visceral del público ante el lamento de los esclavos que cantan: “Oh patria mía, tan bella y perdida.”

Cuando el coro llegaba a su fin, ya se oían en el público varios “bis”.  El público comenzó a gritar: “¡Viva Italia!”, “¡Viva Verdi!”, “¡Larga vida a Italia!”. La gente en el gallinero comenzó a arrojar papeles con mensajes patrióticos. En una única ocasión Muti había aceptado hacer un bis  para el “Va Pensiero” en la Scala de Milán en 1986, puesto que para él la ópera no debe sufrir interrupciones. “Yo no quería sólo hacer un bis. Tenía que haber una intención especial para hacerlo”, relata. Pero el público ya había despertado su sentimiento patriótico. En un gesto teatral, Muti se dio vuelta y miró al público y a Berlusconi a la vez, y dijo:

“Sí, estoy de acuerdo con esto. “Larga vida a Italia”. Pero….
Ya no tengo más 30 años y he vivido mi vida, pero recorrí mucho el mundo, y hoy tengo vergüenza de lo que sucede en mi país. Entonces accedo a vuestro pedido de un bis para el Va Pensiero, nuevamente. No es sólo por la dicha patriótica que siento, sino porque esta noche, cuando dirigía el Coro que cantó “Ay mi patria, bella y perdida” , pensé que si seguimos así vamos a matar la cultura sobre la cual se construyó la historia de Italia.

En tal caso, nuestra patria estaría en verdad “bella y perdida”.

(Aplausos , incluidos de los artistas en escena)

Continuó: Ya que reina acá un clima italiano, yo, Muti, me callé la boca muchos años. Quisiera ahora… tendríamos que darle sentido a este canto; estamos en nuestra casa, el teatro de Roma, y con un coro que cantó magníficamente bien y que acompañó espléndidamente. Si quieren, les propongo unirse a nosotros para que cantemos todos juntos.

Entonces invitó al público a cantar con el  coro de esclavos. “Vi grupos de gente levantarse. Toda la ópera de Roma se levantó. Y el Coro también. Fue un momento mágico en la ópera.
Esa noche no fue solamente una representación de Nabucco, sino también una declaración del teatro de la capital para llamar la atención a los políticos.”

Acá está el video de ese momento lleno de emoción:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/G_gmtO6JnRs

Italy finally woke up. I leave you to savor this. It is moving. 

Last March 12, Silvio Berlusconi had to face reality. Italy celebrated the 150th anniversary of its unification, and this time was at the opera in Rome’s opera “Nabucco” by Giuseppe Verdi, conducted by Maestro Ricardo Muti. Nabucco is a work both musically and politically: it evokes the episode from the bondage of the Jews in Babylon and its famous chorus “Va pensiero” is the song of the oppressed slaves. In Italy, this song is the symbol of the quest for freedom for people, who in the late nineteenth century period when he wrote the opera – was oppressed by the Hapsburg Empire, who fought to the creation of a unified Italy.

Before the performance, Gianni Alemanno, Rome’s mayor, took the stage to deliver a speech denouncing the culture budget cuts made by the government, although Alemanno is a member of the old ruling party and Minister Berlusconi. This political intervention in a cultural moment of the most symbolic for Ialia would produce an unexpected effect, since Berlusconi himself attended the performance.

Then reported by the Times, Ricardo Muti, conductor, said he was a true evening of revolution: “At first there was a standing ovation in the audience. Then we started with opera. It developed very well until we got to the famous song Va pensiero. I immediately felt that the atmosphere was tense in the audience. There are things you can not describe, but you feel them. It was the silence of the public who made her feel. But at the time that people realized that began Va Pensiero, the silence was filled with real fervor. You could feel the visceral reaction of the audience to the cry of the slaves sing, “Oh my country, so beautiful and lost.”

When the choir came to an end because the public could be heard several “bis”. The crowd began shouting: “Viva Italia”, “Viva Verdi”, “Long live Italy!”. People in the house began throwing papers with patriotic messages. Only once Muti had agreed to do an encore for “Va Pensiero” at La Scala in Milan in 1986, since for him the opera does not suffer interruptions. ”I did not just want an encore. Had to be a special intention for it,” he says. But the public had awakened his patriotism. In a theatrical gesture, Muti turned and looked at the audience and Berlusconi at a time, and said:

“Yes, I agree with this.” Long live Italy “. But ….
I have no more than 30 years and have lived my life, but traveled a lot over the world, and today I have shame of what is happening in my country. So I agree to your request for an encore to Va Pensiero, again. It is not just for the joy I feel patriotic, but because tonight, when he directed the choir who sang “Oh my country, beautiful and lost,” and I thought that if we’re going to kill the culture upon which they built the history of Italy .

In this case, our country would truly “beautiful and lost.”

(Applause, including the artists on stage)

He continued: As an Italian climate reigns here, I, Muti, I shut up for many years. I now … would have to make sense of this song, we are in our house, the theater of Rome, and a choir sang magnificently and beautifully accompanied. If you want, I propose to join us to sing together.

Then he invited the audience to sing the chorus of slaves. ”I saw groups of people up. All the Rome Opera House stood. And the choir as well. It was a magical moment in the opera.
That night was not just a representation of Nabucco, but also a statement of the theater in the capital to call attention to the politicians. ”

Here’s the video of that moment full of emotion

http://www.youtube.com/embed/G_gmtO6JnRs

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I am an advocate for Arts and Culture. For 20 years I have warned every level of government not to discriminate financially against youth in arts and culture because it will have dire consequences sooner or later.Every intelligent government in the world – except British Columbia- knows that arts and culture have a calming effect on society. B.C. already has the lowest support for arts and culture in Canada and a few years ago decided to cut the arts even more while authorizing a new roof for yet another sports facility, the cost of which now stands at $ 660 million dollars and rising. I clearly warned that the few dollars they scrape from the arts sector will be minimal compared to the policing and court costs when the predictable “chickens come home to roost”.

Well, unfortunately “the chickens have come home to roost” and the total costs are not only for police, courts and glass, but the damage to tourism and investment that are sure to follow – not to speak of the shame and embarrassment for Vancouver and Canada. When every level of government discriminates against a group or segment of society, it is not discrimination anymore – it is a form of apartheid. Cultural apartheid.

But there is hope. The federal government four years ago instituted a tax credit for children in “fitness”only. After 4 years of protests across Canada, the Canadian government finally corrected this blatant discrimination and offered the same tax credit for children in the arts. When the senior government of Canada, in its wisdom, decides there shall be no more financial discrimination between sports and the arts. there is hope that all levels of government right down to local governments will heed this momentous decision and follow suit.

Sincerely, Sigurd Sabathil, Greater Vancouver, B.C.