Arts and Culture and Social Justice have been front page news here in BC for the past couple of months, and while that might seem to be a good thing, as everyone has now heard, the news is not good.
Many thanks to our friends over at Headlines Theatre who sent us this very informative historical fact sheet and timeline of recent government cuts of gaming grants to non-profits across the province, some of which seriously affect the arts organizations, including many Arts Councils, including the BAC.
Its vital that we continue to raise our voices to let the government know how important funding the arts is to our community social wellbeing. Please read through the following, then take a few minutes to write your MLA. Your quality of life depends on it!
What’s really happening:
Aug. 30- the BC Liberal government slashes and cuts gaming grants for thousands of non-profit organizations;
Sept. 2 – under threat of a class-action law-suit, the BC government restores funding to 5 organizations with whom it has three year written agreements, leaving 6000+ organizations out in the cold – and once the three year commitments are completed, the 540 organizations will also be left out in the cold;
Sept. 9 – the province cuts in half gaming grants to Parent’s Advisory Councils; school districts lose money they were to receive from the province in lease payments from French public schools;
Sept. 14- environmental groups are told they will receive one million dollars in funding from gaming grants (and 50 of them will receive nothing);
Sept. 16 - $14 million is cut from sports groups;
Core funding in the arts will decline more than 80% over the next two years according to a service plan released by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture;
Programs formerly funded by provincial tax revenues such as the BC Arts Council and the Community Link Program providing nutritional lunches in schools are now – as of this year -being funded by gaming;
Because BC decides not to extend tax credits to the film industry to match tax credits now provided to Ontario and Quebec, the film industry is starting to move out of BC ;
No other provinces in Canada have reduced funding for arts and culture - instead Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland and the federal government have increased their investments;
The BC government allocates money to advertise Olympics in schools for $500,000 but cuts gaming grants that support BC Sports in Schools for π of the cost;
The province allocates $38 million of tax revenues for advertising the Olympics abroad but says it cannot afford $10 million in tax revenues for BC’s own Arts Council.
These cuts come at the expense of something vital, the glue that holds communities together and keeps them strong:
According to a 2004 City of Vancouver study, every dollar the city spends on arts and culture results in an additional$12.75 that gets re-invested in the regional economy through salaries, services and creation;
Provincial spending on culture brings thousands of matching dollars into the local economy from the federal government, foundations, and corporate sponsors;
Almost all the money spent on the arts stays in the local economy, contributing to employment, healthy communities and a healthy economy;
BC has the largest percentage of its labour force in arts occupations from among the 12 provinces;
The BC Arts Council supports a sector that employs 80,000 people and generates $52 billion annually – it’s bigger than the forestry and fishing industry combined.
History of the relationship between the gaming industry, the citizens of BC and the government of BC:
Over the last hundred years, gambling becomes generally accepted in Canada as long as the revenues are dedicated to charitable purposes that benefit communities;
1974 - the lottery program is established in this province with the stated purpose to support amateur sports, heritage activities and culture in BC;
1997 – the province’s NDP government tries to take money from the charities to pay for its own tax-revenue funded health and education services; the BC Supreme Court tells them to give the money back to the charities;
1999 - the province of BC enters into a “Memorandum of Understanding” with the BC Association for Charitable Gaming to commit 1/3 of the annual BC Lottery Corporation revenues for the purposes of supporting licensed charities;
2001 -Although the BC Liberals promise during the 2001 election campaign not to expand gambling, they reverse their promise and allow a massive increase in slot machines in casinos, horse tracks and bingo parlours transformed into “community gaming centres”;
2003-2009 -The BC Liberal government receives billions of dollars in gambling revenue, and expands gaming to increase profits, earning record profits – while BC has the highest rates of child poverty in the country due to chronic under funding and cuts to social programs;
2008-2009 -The BC Lottery Corporation earns a gross of $2.61 billion and net revenue of$1.1 billion); The BC government’s shrinks its distribution to charities of gaming profits from 30% (2003/04) to 19%;
2009 – the BC Lottery Corporation raises its weekly spending limit for on-line bets from $120 to $10,000 per week – an increase of 8000%;
Although gambling profits are steadily rising, the BC government is failing to honour its 1999 promise to distribute1/3 of the revenues received to non-profit groups and charities in order to benefit local economies and community health;
Despite steadily increasing revenues from gaming – and a recent dramatic expansion of internet gaming – the province is breaking the social contract that it assumed with the people of BC when it got into the gaming business; The charities and non-profit organizations that paved the way for wide-spread acceptance of gambling are being squeezed out of the gaming revenues by the provincial government, the biggest beneficiary of gaming revenue.
Please write your MLA now and express your desire to ‘BAC’ the ARTS!
