International Art Treasures Web Magazine

December 2005  

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Green Party of Canada

At every level, arts and culture help define our identities and communities, they unlock our individual and collective creativity, and help Canadians share their ideas worldwide. From surreal circus to incisive films to renowned actors and singers, Canadians have been experiencing cultural breakthroughs on the international arts and culture scene. Today, over 600,000 Canadians are employed in the cultural sector. The Green Party wishes to salute their success by investing in our future musicians, dancers, painters, writers, and other artists. Often placed in a precarious financial situation, these up-and-coming artists will benefit from innovative financial tools and increased funding.

The Green Party understands that our future together, our sense of who we are, depends on policies that ensure a thriving, diverse and socially responsible cultural community as part of an inclusive Canada.

Green Party MPs will work to:

• Increase support for community arts programs and facilities across Canada by establishing stable base-funding at a set percentage of the federal budget.
• Establish stable base-funding for young artists.
• Protect Canada's cultural identity during trade negotiations.
• Expand support for regional arts festivals that bring new Canadian art to a wider audience.
• Share Canadian history by supporting more educational programming.
• Provide stable base-funding for the CBC to provide quality television and radio programming in both official languages.
• Direct the CRTC to reserve more bandwidth for independent and non-profit stations.
• Introduce a law mandating cinemas and video chains to have 20 per cent Canadian content.

The Green Party of Canada supports the doubling of the Canadian Council for the Arts' financing, with the goal of promoting and assisting Canadian artists. Moreover, we would pledge to do this in our first year rather than gradually over three years.

We would also designate more funding to the Cultural Human Resources Council in order to help artists in their profession.

We would offer more funds to Telefilm Canada on the condition that most of these funds would be allotted to finance regional production.

These measures would be part of an initiative to increase support for community arts programs and facilities across Canada by establishing stable base-funding at a set percentage of the federal budget.

The Green Party of Canada prioritizes policies that ensure a thriving, diverse and socially responsible cultural community, as part of an inclusive Canada.