That was the point of my question.
Do you have any children?
Evidence of meeting #4 for Canadian Heritage in the 39th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was budget.
Evidence of meeting #4 for Canadian Heritage in the 39th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was budget.
Bloc
Bloc
Maka Kotto Bloc Saint-Lambert, QC
Are you aware of your mandate? Have you been given a precise mandate?
Bloc
Maka Kotto Bloc Saint-Lambert, QC
You therefore have not yet been given precise duties relating to the position that awaits you.
As an Individual
There was a job description in the advertisements, but I have not yet met with the board of directors. I have not yet received any mandate from the minister.
Bloc
Maka Kotto Bloc Saint-Lambert, QC
Very well.
In the 2004-2005 annual report, Mr. John Hobday, your predecessor as CCA Director, wrote in his introduction to the report:
Many arts organizations, large and small, are finding it difficult to sustain themselves. The proportion of revenue of major arts organizations that comes from the Council has decreased dramatically--from 23 to 7%. A diminishing percentage of artists is able to count on support from the Council and other funding bodies.
Do you share Mr. Hobday's opinion?
As an Individual
I believe that this opinion is factual, that it is based on statistics, but I do not know what the Canada Council for the Arts will do in the future with its extra income.
Bloc
Maka Kotto Bloc Saint-Lambert, QC
As you are aware, 50 million dollars have been granted over two years, on top of the one hundred and fifty some million dollars, but this will not be a recurring allocation. The Council will therefore be moving back to a budget that has for some time now been limited.
Bloc
Maka Kotto Bloc Saint-Lambert, QC
You have heard talk of coalitions in Canada and in Quebec because of a lack of money. Demand is growing and everyone's share of the money available is becoming ever smaller.
What do you plan on doing with regard to this reality?
As an Individual
This is a very serious challenge for me and for the Canada Council for the Arts, but I believe that the CCA must set its priorities so as to use this increase to grant monies to artists and artistic organizations and show the public and the government of Canada the results of this investment.
As an Individual
Yes, but I am very much aware of the fact that 50 million dollars is a lot of money. It is however true that 20 million dollars, namely the increase for the first year, amounts to only 60 cents per person in Canada. That is not exactly a huge investment, but it nevertheless is a significant one for our country's artists.
Bloc
Maka Kotto Bloc Saint-Lambert, QC
That is not what we have heard in Quebec.
I have one final question.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Schellenberger
We'll have to move on right now. You'll have another opportunity a little later. I've been very liberal. It's been almost seven minutes. I've gone over five minutes, but when things are working and you're into it....
It's Mr. Angus's turn right now.
NDP
Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Mr. Sirman, for coming before us today. I read your background, and I'm very pleased that you put forth your name for the Canada Council.
I'd like to say at the outset that in 1994 I received a Canada Council explorations grant as an emerging artist for my first book. I'm now on my fifth book. I'm not saying that to brag, but to establish the point of the importance of taking a chance on emerging artists, because each of those books sold very well and helped establish a career that, quite frankly, couldn't have gotten off the ground without the support of the Canada Council.
My concern is the ability of the Canada Council to maintain that kind of outreach to emerging artists because of the growing pressures of the numerous applications that are coming forward and the limited budget. What role do you see in terms of ensuring that emerging artists, those who haven't managed to establish the necessary track record that the larger organizations or established artists have, will still be able to be heard at the Canada Council level?
As an Individual
It's an excellent question, but it's a bit awkward for me to answer because I'm not there yet, and I haven't really been briefed on what the dynamics are in determining how--
NDP
As an Individual
There's no question in my mind that there has to be a priority placed on new creativity, new artists, new players on the scene, just as there has to be on artists and arts organizations and art forms that have established a track record. It's impossible to trade these two things off in my mind and only fund one and not the other. However, the mechanisms for doing this are challenging in any arts funding body. I have 15 years' experience, as you've heard, in granting specifically in the arts, and I know that during all of that time this was a constant debate, a debate that engaged not only the funding bodies, but also the artists themselves, who were constantly trying to figure out how to make room for new voices in their own art forms. I don't feel that I'm really able to commit myself any more than that and say that I don't think this is a trade-off. These are both priorities for any funding body in the country.
NDP
Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON
In your previous experience you would have, I suppose, dealt with funding applications for the Canada Council as well as for the Ontario Arts Council. Would that be correct?
As an Individual
I'm not sure what you mean by saying that in my previous experience I would have dealt with funding.
NDP
Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON
Through ballet and through theatre you would have received Canada Council funding?
As an Individual
The National Ballet School for the first four years that I worked there received money from the Canada Council, but in 1995, my fourth year there, the responsibility for the National Ballet School transferred from the Canada Council to the Department of Canadian Heritage. So for the last 11 years I have had no funding relationship with the Canada Council whatsoever.