The Provincial Government’s Standing Committee on Finance recently recommended in its budget report to Treasury Board that the government: "increase funding to the BC Arts Council to enhance arts and culture in the province."

This is great news! But for this recommendation to have effect, the Ministry for Tourism Sport and the Arts needs to follow up with a request to Treasury Board for an increase to their budget.

And you can help make this happen! 

Here’s what you can do:

 1) Email the Honourable Stan Hagen, Minister for Tourism, Sport and the Arts (stan.hagen.mla@leg.bc.ca) saying you endorse the Standing Committee’s recommendation. Specifically, tell him you support the following key recommendation:

“To ensure an adequate investment in sustainable communities throughout British Columbia, Arts Future BC is recommending all-party support for an increased investment of $32 million in Arts and Culture through the British Columbia Arts Council, in the 2007-2009 budgets.”

2) Send a copy of your email to: 

The Honourable Carol Taylor, Minister of Finance (carol.taylor@leg.bc.ca)

and to the members of Treasury Board:
Honourable Rick Thorpe, Vice Chair rick.thorpe.mla@leg.bc.ca
Honourable Pat Bell pat.bell.mla@leg.bc.ca
Honourable Bill Bennett bill.bennett.mla@leg.bc.ca
Honourable Shirley Bond shirley.bond.mla@leg.bc.ca
Honourable Ida Chong ida.chong.mla@leg.bc.ca
Honourable Rich Coleman rich.coleman.mla@leg.bc.ca
Honourable Kevin Falcon kevin.falcon.mla@leg.bc.ca
Honourable Colin Hansen colin.hansen.mla@leg.bc.ca
Honourable Linda Reid linda.reid.mla@leg.bc.ca
John Yap , MLA john.yap.mla@leg.bc.ca
Iain Black , MLA iain.black.mla@leg.bc.ca

3) Send a copy to your own MLA. You can find your MLA’s email address at http://www.leg.bc.ca/mla/3-1-1.htm

4) Send a copy to the Alliance for Arts and Culture (hredfern@allianceforarts.com) so we can keep track of the numbers of letters going to the minister.

You can find a sample letter you can use, or adapt, here.Or you can write your own. Just be sure to say you endorse the Standing Committee's recommendation and support an increased investment of $32 million to the BC Arts Council in the 2007 to 2009 budgets to support arts and culture in BC.

Background

Throughout the fall, the Alliance for Arts and Culture through Arts Future BC has been coordinating submissions to the Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services. This is the committee that makes recommendations to Treasury Board for the upcoming provincial budget. The Committee toured the province this fall getting community input. Arts Future BC coordinated oral presentations to the Committee in eight regional centres and presented the Committee with a detailed written brief. All of these presentations focused on the recommendation to increase BC's investment in arts and culture with a $32 million increase to BC Arts Council's budget.

Who is Arts Future BC?

Arts Future BC is coalition of eight BC arts and culture service organizations and citizens groups. The Alliance is one of the founding members. Between us we represent over 900 arts organizations and thousands of individual artists and arts supporters throughout the province.

Why Now?

A delegation from Arts Future BC will be asking for the Honourable Stan Hagen, Minister for Tourism, Sport and the Arts for his support for the Standing Committee on Finance's recommendation to increase support for arts and culture through BC Arts Council. Your letters will add strength to our arguments and show the Minister that he has a broad base of support for this initiative.

Why BC Arts Council?

Arts Future BC believes that BC Arts Council is THE vehicle to deliver this much needed investment: it puts funding into the hands of individual artists and arts organizations directly engaged in arts and culture creation, production and dissemination, and community development through the arts, working throughout the province. BC Arts Council is also the best agency to deliver core funding to build sustainable arts organizations, to support BC artists, and to ensure that BC communities benefit from a stable arts sector that contributes to the social and economic health of the community.

Why $32 million?

Arts Future BC has researched Provincial Government's current investment in arts and culture, set reasonable funding targets and costed out what it would take to reach these targets. $32 million will move us from one of the lowest of Canada's provinces in contributions to arts and culture to one of the highest. This is not unreasonable considering BC has one of the most vibrant arts and culture sectors in the country. This increase will also provide much needed longer term stability for BC's arts and culture community.

Last Updated: Friday, January 26, 2007