Local arts supporters act to find ways to increase annual municipal funding
Proposals include introducing hotel, amusement taxes

By Susan Riley, Ottawa Citizen
Copyright 1999 Southham Inc.
Article date: November 15, 1996
 

In a climate of fiscal restraint and continuing cutbacks, City of Ottawa staff and local arts supporters are calling for a $630,000 annual increase in municipal support for arts groups in coming years.

A draft report from the Department of Community Services, now circulating among arts organizations, makes even more daring proposals for the future, including an amusement tax, or hotel tax, to provide predictable, long-term funding for the arts.

The justification for these bold departures from current economic orthodoxy rests on two arguments: that arts funding pays enormous and often unacknowledged economic benefits to the city, and that most arts organizations -- which tend to be
entrepreneurial and frugally managed -- can leverage impressive amounts of private and senior government support from a small infusion of city money.

For example, just four per cent, or $70,000, of Opera Lyra Ottawa's $1.7-million budget comes from the city. But Marcus Handeman, the company's executive director, says the city money is crucial to establishing credibility with senior levels of government "who are more concerned than ever that arts organizations be solidly rooted in their communities."

For all that, the proposals won't be readily embraced by a city council that has been ordered to find $15 million in savings in a budget of $260 million.

Coun. Elisabeth Arnold, a strong defender of culture spending, says the immediate challenge is to restore eight-per-cent cuts proposed in the city's 1997 budget for local arts groups, summer festivals and institutions such as Odyssey Theatre and Ottawa School of Dance. Overall, the city funds hundreds of artists, arts and heritage groups, and events -- from Indian dance troupes, to the Ottawa Symphony, to experimental video artists, Scottish heritage day and the jazz festival.

The proposed cuts, amounting to $180,000 from a total arts budget of $2.6 million, appear small but they follow a $269,000 reduction last year, amounting to 20 per cent less funding for local arts overall. Because most arts organizations, even large ones like the Great Canadian Theatre Company, run on tight budgets, any reduction in municipal support is painful.

Just last year, arts funding finally reached a long-established benchmark, representing slightly more than one per cent of the city's budget. But that goal was attained only because city spending shrank when key services were transferred to the region.

Meanwhile, real arts spending has diminished of late. The city no longer spends $100,000 a year to acquire works by local artists for the municipal art collection. And it will soon lose its arts development officer, charged with finding premises and support for new or growing arts organizations. The city has also cancelled a $250,000 grant to local francophone theatre groups to help renovate the old NAC Atelier theatre on King Edward Avenue.

Ben Gianni, Dean of Architecture at Carleton University and co-chair of the city's public art advisory committee, says the city's public art program is also at a standstill because funding is tied to capital projects and no major projects are contemplated in
the current atmosphere.

Obviously, local artists won't be commissioned to make sculptures, or paintings for new municipal offices, if none are being built.

That is why Gianni supports the city staff recommendation that a new benchmark of $6 per capita be allocated directly to local cultural organizations, rather than the one per cent of spending now earmarked for culture. The new formula, he says, ensures
more predictable funding for the arts, based on population rather than on shifting budgets.

Victoria Henry is chief of partnerships and product development at the Canadian Museum of Civilization and chair of the city's cultural leadership committee, a 15-member advisory group of artists and arts administrators. She doesn't expect council to immediately endorse increased arts funding, but hopes it adopts the $6-per-capita benchmark by 2000.

If it does, that would increase Ottawa's cultural spending by $630,000 annually, to slightly more than $3.2 million, not out of line with what other municipalities spend.

The staff report notes that Ottawa ranks 11th among 14 other cities when it comes to cultural spending, contributing proportionately less than Winnipeg and Edmonton. And while Ottawa is blessed with major federal institutions like the National Gallery of Canada, the National Arts Centre and the national museums, these centres don't do much to foster the local arts scene.

The staff report also emphasizes a familiar economic argument: City-funded arts groups return $15 million annually to the local economy, by way of festivals, theatre seasons, opera and music. And a vital cultural life is a key to attracting high-tech
companies and their employees to the capital.

Over time, the draft report envisions funding culture from a designated tax, or some other method, rather than from the city's dwindling operating budget -- although that could require the Ontario government to extend new tax powers to municipalities.

Arts support group proposals will be scrutinized Dec. 11 at council's community services and operations committee; then they will be debated by the full Ottawa council.

Apprehensive arts supporters hope the politicians will at least agree to study more creative ways of funding the arts. Says Gianni: "More cuts will be fatal."

Winnipeg already raises all of its annual $1.9-million arts budget from a 10- per-cent amusement tax on tickets to concerts, movies, theatre, race tracks and midways.

Several U.S. cities tax hotel rooms to underwrite local culture. Based on 1995 figures, city staff figure a 2-per- cent tax on Ottawa hotel rooms could raise $3.6 million for the arts.

There is also a program in Vancouver, which allows developers greater density in their office towers or condos if they include a theatre or gallery. If this concept were introduced here, developers of a proposed new downtown congress centre might be
persuaded to build a long-planned theatre space in the downtown core.

Such proposals will be scrutinized Dec. 11 at council's community services and operations committee; then they will be debated by the full Ottawa council.

Apprehensive arts supporters hope the politicians will at least agree to study more creative ways of funding the arts. Says Gianni: "More cuts will be fatal."

Update

The issue: Local funding for the arts.

The background: The City of Ottawa's budget is shrinking, imperilling stable funding for hundreds of local arts and heritage organizations.

What's new: City staff and local arts supporters want to increase municipal arts spending by $630,000 annually in coming years, perhaps raising that money through a tax on hotels, or movies and other forms of entertainment.

What's next: A City Council committee will consider new ways of funding the arts at a Dec. 11 meeting.
 

In the News