UPI: Canada to slash $42M in arts funding

OTTAWA, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- The Canadian government is planning to cut $42 million in arts and culture funding, sources say.

Citing unnamed sources, the Toronto Globe and Mail said the proposed cuts from the ruling Conservative Party would hit 10 Canadian Heritage programs. The plans have drawn protests from the mayors of Toronto and Montreal who have sent a joint letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the newspaper said.

The biggest cuts, which were approved in February, included the $11 million Canadian Memory Fund, an effort to digitize library collections and mount them online; the $3.6 million Culture.ca Web portal; the $528,000 Canadian Cultural Observatory; and the $5.3 million research and development budget of Canadian Culture Online, the Globe and Mail said.

A joint protest letter sent by Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay and Toronto Mayor David Miller received a cool response from the prime minister's office, the report said. Communications director Kory Teneycke told the newspaper, "To listen to some in the arts community and the opposition, you would think that there's blood in the streets."

http://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2008/08/20/Canada_to_slash_42M_in_arts_funding/UPI-71351219262702/

he might be in for a mighty big disappointment. I want his ass out so bad!

People also received a GST cut. If they can't afford art then should a patronizing government raise the GST back to seven percent and use the increase in GST revenue to fund artists who know the "right" people? Keep in mind that the GST comes from such sources as a tax on textbooks and bathroom tissue, while grocery store lobster is exempted as "food." Why not get even more patronizing and give tax incentives to mainstream banks that reduce the already low interest rates on savings accounts and use the money to fund the people who get plugged into money pipelines when government decision-makers feel like throwing around forty million here and there? Keep in mind that the forty million dollars comes from such sources as a marginal income tax rate that begins at 25% on the income of people who live in big cities, who can't find full-time work, and who don't earn much more than minimum wage when they are working.

Let's cut some of the military increase and give some back to the arts. Let's not cut taxes and put more into healthcare. Let's not kiss bush's ass and, instead, go back to defining Canada as Canada and not a country trying to hang on to bush/US coattails.

harper has done a great deal of harm to Canada both domestically and internationally. Canadians want a focus on global change in CONCRETE ways instead of mouthing crap from bush.

I want harper out for many, many reasons.

Mixed up bunch of crap.

Any Canadian wouldn't put themselves that far out on a limb!

However, I vaguely recall accusations that Dion has dual citizenship, so I suppose that you might allege that he isn't simply and purely a "Canadian." What is a Canadian in your opinion? Do you take it upon yourself to exclude everyone who isn't simply and purely a "Canadian" from DU's "Canada" forum?

changes the legal form of the organization to an official Canadian corporation, then are they and their employees and shareholders entitled to corporate welfare if their primary business involves music and/or visual art?