Arts Day on Parliament Hill, October 23, 2012, Ottawa

ARCA is proud to have been part of the 3rd edition of the Canadian Arts Coalition’s Day on the Hill on October 23 with a group of over 120 arts leaders from across Canada. This advocacy group constituted from a range of arts disciplines was broken up into smaller, mixed groups and met with Senators, MPs and senior officials over an amazing one hundred and eight meetings of 30 minutes each. The purpose of the meetings was to discuss the important role that federal policies and programs play in our organisations’ success. This year, ARCA’s mission included Brenda Cleniuk (PARCA & Neutral Ground, Regina), Todd Janes (AAARC & Latitude 53, Edmonton), Lise Leblanc (Director, AGAVF) and Anne Bertrand (Director, ARCA) who met with the following parliamentarians:

  • Senator Serge Joyal, Kennebec district
  • Linda Duncan, NDP, MP for Edmonton Strathcona
  • Brian Jean, Con, MP for Fort McMurray-Athabasca
  • Shawn Fried, Chief of Staff for Minister Ted Menzies, Con, MP for Macleod. Menzies is the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance
  • Laurie Hawn, Con, MP for Edmonton-Centre
  • Élaine Michaud, NDP, MP Portneuf-Jacques-Cartier
  • Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, MP for Pierrefonds-Dollard
  • Pierre-Luc Dusseault, NPD, MP Sherbrooke
  • Francine Raynault, NPD, MP, Joliette
  • François Lapointe, NPD, MP, Montmagny-L’Ilet-Kamouraska-Rivière-du-Loup

The Canadian Arts Coalition has worked hard in preparing participants to meet and engage with parliementarians as an opportunity to deliver key messages in a cohesive, effective way. ARCA encourages all artist-run centres interested in developping a closer relationship with local politicians at all levels of government to appropriate and adapt this advocacy material which includes a handy one pager on the contribution of the arts.This material can be found on the Coalition’s Action Centre, on their website.

The Canadian Arts Coalition has also put forward a pre-budget submission to the House of Commons Finance Committee requesting that the government:

  • Renew investments in such funds as the Canada Arts Presentation Fund
  • Maintain funding levels to the arts through the Canada Council for the Arts at $181 million in fiscal year 2013-2014
  • Consider raising this investment to $300 million per year.

– Follow the Coalition and ARCA on Twitter @arccc-cccaa  @ArtsCoalitionCa #artsday

– Adapt and send a letter to your local MP IMMEDIATELY!

Read a summary of a wrapup  teleconference meeting (PDF)