Evidence of meeting #159 for Canadian Heritage in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was council.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
David Yurdiga Conservative Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB
We have a lot of people not applying just because—
Conservative
Director and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Council for the Arts
Absolutely.
Conservative
David Yurdiga Conservative Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB
Then how has the application process changed? What have you changed in the application process to make it more user-friendly?
A lot of groups have professional grant writers. They are way above everyone, else but the northern communities don't have that luxury.
Director and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Council for the Arts
I'm smiling because when we took the decision to reduce and simplify the grant application process, we had all of the young people, people from the north, people who were not really well advantaged by the system, applauding, and we had big organizations that were very frustrated because they could not explain at length what they wanted to do.
To be very concrete, we reduced the number of words. We asked for explanations. We also worked with juries that are aware of the context and know the artists. They can just judge on what is written on the paper, but they know the track records of the artists. Again, I'm not saying that everything is perfect, because I think we have more and more work to do to reach out to people and explain the Canada Council.
Again, this is work that we have not been doing for 20 years because there was no new money and there was no interest in having newcomers in the system.
It's exactly the reverse right now. The reverse right now is our priority is to make sure that we remove all the barriers. We did that. For instance, we published what has been the most visited section of the website of the Canada Council ever. We published a communique saying that we are removing all the barriers that are related to the formal number of years of artistic practice and all of that, because we saw that this was disadvantaging people from some regions in Canada and was also preventing refugees and immigrants from applying to the Canada Council. We removed those barriers, and we are moving from a culture in which we felt we were under siege and were gatekeepers to a situation that we think is about outreach, meeting people and inviting them to apply, and we have the money to respond.
I think that it will change the arts system for the better.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Steven Blaney
Thank you very much, Mr. Brault.
Thank you, Mr. Yurdiga.
I now turn the floor over to Ms. Dhillon.
Liberal
Liberal
Conservative
Liberal
Randy Boissonnault Liberal Edmonton Centre, AB
Thank you.
I just want to tell my honourable colleague on the other side of the table:
I'm not going to take any advice from any member of Parliament in the House or around this table about how and when to defend Edmontonians or Albertans, and in this case Edmontonians and Albertan artists who have been disadvantaged for almost as long as I've been alive.
Liberal
Randy Boissonnault Liberal Edmonton Centre, AB
I know.
And I know Mr. Brault probably comes from your
riding.
Director and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Council for the Arts
I want to say something, and it has nothing to do with.... I want to say the issue with artists and the issue with Alberta is something that is really serious. We really want to address it, but we need to understand how the machinery works there.
Liberal
Director and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Council for the Arts
Can I give you just one number?
Director and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Council for the Arts
When you think of the institutions, do you know the proportion of the Canada Council funding for a Quebec institution today? It's 17%. Do you know what the percentage is for an Alberta institution? It's 23%.
The reason is that the Canada Council is over-investing because the level of public funding is not there at the provincial and at the municipal level at the same level.
Liberal
Director and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Council for the Arts
It's an important point—
Liberal
Randy Boissonnault Liberal Edmonton Centre, AB
Mr. Brault, the City of Edmonton has doubled its funding.
Director and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Council for the Arts
And I'm very happy with it—
Liberal
Randy Boissonnault Liberal Edmonton Centre, AB
The problem with Alberta and the funding is...this is my time. Let me ask the questions.
Liberal
Randy Boissonnault Liberal Edmonton Centre, AB
I want to extend an olive branch, because I think you're trying to do really important work and I want to see this resolved in my lifetime.
On your tour, would you come to Edmonton and do a round table? I will sit next to you. I will moderate.
