Charitable Gaming Funded Small Arts Groups

Thanks Charles for your ooverage of the arts funding issue.
In the article you state most of the funding for the arts comes from the arts council. But much of the funding for the arts, especially small arts groups, came from gaming. Contrary to what has been reported elsewhere, that funding has not been restored. For many groups, this funding represented the majority of their budget. But it's not just the arts...all sorts of community based groups have lost control of what has always been a share of revenues from gaming. This local control was just as important as the money. We need a simple message: Restore the gaming funding. AND--restore the autonomy of the BC Arts Council with a fitting appropriation from general tax revenue. Both are relatively small amounts in the overall budget, but provide a big return in social and financial capital.
For futher information on gaming funding, please see:http://www.straight.com/print/258240#

Also...On this funding of the arts in general, and more specifically gaming, please note:

http://www.allianceforarts.com/blog/union-bc-municipalities-conference-debate-emergency-resolution-restore-gaming-funds
Please forward this on to your contacts as a way of supporting this resolution.

The Union of BC Municipalities Conference will take place at the Vancouver Conference Centre from September 28 to October 3, 2009.

All Mayors and Councils from across BC and all MLA's and the Premier will be in attendance.

An emergency resolution has been submitted and will be debated at the conference. The resolution requests the reinstatement of all Direct Access Gaming Funding to all of the Charities in BC.

Please support our BC Charities - the social-profit sector - the arts, culture, heritage, parents, teachers, hot lunch programs, libraries, amateur sports, AIDS relief centres, health centres, emergency preparedness, music and summer camps for blind kids.

Please call or email your local Mayor or Councillor now and ask that they support this critical resolution.

Gaming grants

The BCLC use in their asvertising ....By gambling and playing lotteries you are supporting community groups,sports,and the arts...

There is a morale contract in place,these gaming grants were the selling point for expanded gambling..
We know what Gordon Campbell thinks of contracts,rip,shred,who gives a F......

Since the Campbell government has reneged on this morale contract, all groups should be able to put up prizes and run their own lotteries,because as you know they legally can`t, throughout this province in the era of expanded gambling the province has cracked down on groups using gambling to raise money.

As for James Moore, he and Campbell are birds of a feather,neither has walked away from a photo-op,Moore was in on the Evergreen line fraud,port mann bridge scam...
And you can bet your last dollar Campbell and Moore will be rubbing shoulders at the UBMC conference.

if a Torrie says so

Harper has never been interested in the arts. Sports, yes. Look at his attitude to CBC.
So, for this guy to say devastating, about the cuts, he is gathering votes or maybe it is really bad.

shell game

As that 2004 article from the Walrus "The Man Behind Stephen Harper" revealed - the prime issue for Harper and his Reformatories, (whilst they wait out their hoped for (end-of-Canada) majority) is: "how do we fool the world into thinking we're moving to the left when we're not?"

damack is correct

The gaming money has been especially important in small communities. It would be tough to organize a boycott of lottery tickets, but BC Lotteries offices in Vancouver and Richmond ought to be targets of pickets and demos.

A key ingredient in the BC govt's spin has been to sow division between so-called elitist, bonbon-imbibing & martini-swilling artists and regular workers. Much like what Harper said in the last federal election. So some solidarity between unions and the arts sector would definitely be in order...

The barbarians' first target

The barbarians' first target for destruction are always the arts, because they don't have the brains to appreciate them.

Ed Deak.

Gaming money

Apologies for the lack of clarity on gaming money. I should have elaborated on that aspect of the funding cuts. But as it's hard to put a number on those cuts, I stuck with what we know for sure from the Tourism, Arts and Culture ministry service plan budget. In that ministry, most of the money flows through the BC Arts Council. For many groups, gaming provides funding in the same order as the money they get from the arts council. In many cases that money has been cut entirely, in others it has not been cut at all.

Putting the blame where it belongs.

Pretty effing cynical, I think, for these crooks to steal monies purportedly designated for the arts and sports, and put the money into general revenue in order to cover their asses for their financial bungling.

When they dump Campbell and try to re-brand with a new leader, will we remember that it is not just Campbell who is responsile for this, but also his Party's back-room boys and his caucus who are equally in on the game?

I hope there will be lots of embarrassing demonstations at at their showboating Olympics.

Arts Funding

cuts are "devastating" when provincial governments (especially the ones who say they are not Conservative) wield the knife. Somehow, the same action by Ottawa is transformed into life-saving surgery.

Moore spun his cuts to recording artists' exposure to foreign audiences as a mere diversion of funds, not cuts, when he appeared last week on Jian Ghomeshi's CBC Radio One show, Q. The artists affected disagreed. But Moore did agree to appear on the show weekly or more often. We'll see if Harper allows him to talk.

Arts Funding--Gaming Follow-up

It’s doubly hard to know the real figures for BC provincial funding, because they have taken the money that earned through gaming and funneled it into the already slashed budget of this year's BC Arts Council funding. No one really knows why. What's left? How can we really tell? No earned gaming money and much less actual arts council money. Speaking of the BC Arts Council--where were they on this? Do they really believe that Minister Krueger is serving the Arts? Where's the money from general revenue for the arts next year? Where is their autonomy?

And for all those community groups, including the arts, reinstate the money that these social-profit groups earned through lending their name and moral authority to the continued expansion of gaming in this province.

Finally, I would like to add, I liked the Federal/Provincial divide that has been explored here by Charles. And I thank James Moore for his endorsement of what British Columbians have been screaming for: fund the Arts. All governments’ studies prove that if we do, we make money in multiplier tax revenue. More importantly, we also create invaluable cultural capital that will be feeding our children's children.

Correction

Sorry about the missing "was" in my last posting. I did do a quick check before posting. Is there anyway of re-submitting? Please let me know.

And I meant to say, I like that the divide between federal and provincial funding for the arts is being explored through this article. I don't like the divide. And it's there.

With all the cuts and tears

With all the cuts and tears the Campbell gang just spent some huge amounts 4 laning about 1 mile of Hwy 97 just North of 150 Mile house, with crews working on the project for months.

There are no 4 lanes at either end of this idiocy and won't be for many years, especially when they reach the rockwall South of Williams Lake, and the expansion isn't even needed, because there isn't enough traffic to warrant it.

So, what was the purpose, or any benefits, while our other roads get no repairs and are breaking up all over ?

The money wasted on this stupidity would have paid for a lot of badly needed programs.

Ed Deak.

plenty of pavement

Yes, Ed, and there's a nice long section south of the 80 Mile Rd on Hwy 97 that didn't seem to have many potholes, but has been ripped up and widened...

Any program under Kevin K.

Any program under Kevin K. has no hope of having a sensible coversation with the clown. The arts in BC will have a tough time surviving. Maybe if they claimed they were attached to the circus the money would suddenlt appear.

arts funds cuts

spreadsheets online which set out the distribution of gaming money in every community in british columbia.

Where The Money Goes > http://www.hsd.gov.bc.ca/gaming/revenue/index.htm

Imagine

Imagine the world’s reaction to the Government of BC making an announcement that, because of the current recession, and “surprises” regarding the provincial deficit, the Government was going to take care of the needs of the population of BC first and foremost, and while the Government would fulfill its obligations to the Olympics, it was going to scale the Olympics back as much as possible, because the citizens of BC had to come first. The reaction of people around the world would have been awed admiration. Instead, the world is going to arrive to a province in turmoil.

Maybe we need to start imagining what 200,000 people in the streets looks like, mourning the dismantling of education, health, arts and culture and the social safety net here in BC, on the opening day of the Olympics.

Hippocracy

Mr. Moore, please spare us the election campaign spiel. Your credibility is suspect at best.

A couple of months ago you had a photo-op presenting a cheque to the PNE for their 100-year celebration next year. Before the media you stated that this cheque was being presented by the Conservative Party and Prime Minister Harper. I ask, was this cheque drawn on the Conservative Party's funds or was it just taxpayers dollars being presented? You and I both know the answer to that. It was Canadian taxpayer's money and for you to state anything different is a bold faced lie. Making misleading statements such as this does nothing but erode your and your party's credibility. As a matter of fact, it is time that you and the other 307 MPs in Ottawa stop making statements that do nothing more than insult our intelligence. We deserve and demand better than this.

Moore Is Now Modeling The Emperor's New Clothes

Moore presents himself that he is sympathetic to the arts and considers them key components of economic stimulus. However, in February, he announced the reorganization of magazine funding which will result in most of the small literary and arts magazines in B.C. and across the rest of the country of losing significant funding. The new Canada Periodical Fund, which comes into effect in April 2010, will set the minimum circulation required to be eligible for funding to be 5000 paid copies per annum. Most literary and arts magazines fall below this mark, including some of the most respected journals in both disciplines, magazines where some of Canada's most important writers began. They punch of their weight. Canadian Heritage has rationalized in public statements that its funding is a duplication of Canada Council funding in an attempt to deflect attention from the central fact that Canadian Heritage dramatically changed the operations of these magazines, making them more viable. Minister Moore, who says that the changes are all about administrative efficiencies, has been encouraged to transfer the monies that it has been granting to arts and literary magazines to the Canada Council—approximately $650,000. This would allow the Council to combine this sum with its existing periodical program, making it more effective. So far, the Minister has not done this. Also one wonders if the minimum paid circulation was set at 5000 copies in order to drop these small magazines, which do not fit the George W. Harperite agenda of commercially sexy. One also wonders if the Ministry of Canadian Heritage is living up to its responsibilities as our ministry of culture or should more properly be called the ministry of mostly sports, given its almost myopic focus on the Vancouver Gordon Campbell Games (a moniker used since the O word is trademark protected). I find it rich that Moore presents himself as concerned about the arts—which needs its small as well as its big players—and am surprised that The Tyee does not call himself on his record. Yes, funding the Vancouver International Film Festival is important, but making noise about it only hides what he is doing to other key components of cultural support. It is exactly what Moore wants the media to do; it is keeping him—and us—on message. And as for him buying a cup of coffee, let’s hope after the next election that is all he will be doing.

Cuts, cuts, cuts

hurt. And arts cuts are the unkindest cuts of all.

The fact that "advertising revenues" for media are down should not apply as a reason for cuts to CBC (radio especially) which is not just another commercial enterprise. R'man always tries to defend the indefensible. In the case of CBC, it has been obvious that Reform Conservatism ideology accounts for such punishing action from Ottawa.

Sean Ruthen's item corroborates the fact that Harper and Assoc. must get some sort of sadistic pleasure out of seeing perceived "enemies" twisting in the wind.

Sean Ruthen - tough indeed!

With Pee Wee, Baird and Moore on the case - not to mention Campbell - I think your dream of a new 'Churchill' or 'Pericles' coming into town over the next hill is wishful thinking; but then, what would you expect from someone who's hailing the new Trade and Convention centre and the Golden Ears bridge as something more than black holes.

We're still on the downward slope - it'll be a while before we reach the nadir.

Given the fact that extant case law permits folks to camp in parks perhaps we could see some expansive temporary 'outdoor' structures a-building in such places before long...

What's the current unemployment rate for graduates of UBC's architecture school?

With respect to the CBC Des - I'm sure you're right - it is their sadistic pleasure indeed...the best they can do now for afternoon AM radio is a reprise of local shows; rebroadcasts of Ideas and the like...

realistically, Harper sells off ...

... anything not tied down.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/09/29/antiques-government-auction.html

Has Harper Reformed ?

"I'd like to put a 'For sale' sign on the CBC. We don't need it," Conservative MP Myron Thompson told the Moose Jaw Times-Herald on June 18, 1994.