Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak today in response to private member's Motion M-213 put forward by the hon. member for Richelieu, which proposes changing the funding practice with respect to cultural organizations to a multi-year schedule.
The need for multi-year planning is necessary for two very important reasons. First, it reflects a desire on the part of all Canadians to see the implementation of good business practices throughout government. Second, it ensures that our cultural organizations will remain vigorous and accountable.
Canada has many cultural organizations, covering the full range of all the activities that make our Canadian culture a vivid
and living experience. We have museums, theatres, symphony orchestras, art galleries, and dance companies, all there as a reflection of Canada's heart and soul and all striving to keep their heads above perilous waters.
Why? Because they have traditionally been funded on an annual basis, greatly impeding their ability to carry out plans for the long term. It is good business sense to plan ahead, but a virtual impossibility if there is no notion of the kind of income that will be forthcoming.
Government understands this dilemma. The government made its commitment to better business practices in the red book by promising multi-year funding to cultural organizations. This is part of the government's plan to help make Canada more fiscally responsible and economically sound.
The 1994 budget announced that a program review would be undertaken to "ensure that the government's diminished resources are directed to the highest priority requirements and to those areas where the federal government is best placed to deliver services".
The program review was a comprehensive and rigorous examination of all federal programs and activities, including those of a cultural nature. Its central objective was to identify the federal government's core roles and responsibilities and to provide modern, affordable government.
In the 1995 budget the government announced reductions based on the program review exercise, reductions to ensure that it meets its commitment to reduce the deficit to 3 per cent of gross domestic product in 1996-97. Cultural agencies in the Canadian heritage portfolio were part of this exercise. Agencies like the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the National Library, and the National Arts Centre, to name only a few, are now working to implement these reductions and set their courses for the future.
The current reductions have been a tough bullet to bite, but the cultural agencies, like other areas of government, are doing their best to contribute to the success of the government's fiscal strategy. Under these circumstances, it only makes sense to give cultural agencies as much assistance as possible through this difficult period by enabling them to plan their futures with a greater degree of confidence.
In the 1995 budget it was announced that the government intends to implement a new expenditure management system. Its objectives are to take responsible spending decisions to deliver the programs and services Canadians need and can afford and to meet the required fiscal targets. Moreover, this system will foster a more open, responsive, and accountable budget process.
This is the criterion that Canadians are demanding we apply: greater accountability for the money we spend. In the face of fixed or declining budgets and the need to adjust to changing circumstances through reallocation, we need a more flexible system of expenditure management.
Cultural organizations, through the preparation of three-year business plans, can take a more strategic, multi-year perspective to their management. Cultural organizations can prepare outlook documents that will be available to the House standing committee. With such documents in hand, committee members will be better informed and better able to review and report on future expenditure priorities.
These multi-year outlooks will be based on resources allocated in the February budget and will set out the strategies to be pursued to adapt to the fiscal and policy environment. The outlook will explain significant resource shifts in terms of the priorities and associated initiatives of the organization over a three-year period. It will describe new directions, evolving priorities, and objectives for the period. It is good to reiterate that this outlook document will be developed by the cultural agency itself.
There is no question that working for the long term is a more feasible method of making the best use of scarce resources. If this is a better way to stretch our cultural dollars, then we should go ahead with it.
Our cultural organizations, whatever proportion of the population they serve, are too important to let die for lack of foresight. Our cultural organizations are a precious entity within the Canadian identity. They are the caretakers of our rich past, the caretakers of our creative efforts, the food that nourishes the mind and the heart and the soul.
Our cultural organizations allow us to see ourselves and let others see us and know us as Canadians. The motion we are discussing today speaks to our belief in the necessity of cultural organizations. It is an important one for all Canadians. By affirming the value of our cultural organizations, by keeping them living and viable institutions, we are affirming our belief in ourselves.
In my view we have no option but to encourage multi-year planning for our cultural organizations. We must ensure they can maintain their stability in an uncertain world and have the opportunity to become the best possible reflection of Canada's cultural identity.