Gloom and Glee

1 Gloom and Glee Analyses of the Provincial and Territorial 2013-2014 Budgets from the Perspective of Arts, Culture and Heritage Centre on Governance, University of Ottawa 2 Notes: Real GDP growth figures are all taken from Statistics Canada. Gross Domestic Product by Industry: Chart 1. Published Friday, April 26, 2013 Revenue from Federal Transfers taken from Government of Canada. Department of Finance. Federal Transfer Tables. Population figures for all provinces come from Statistics Canada document ‘Population Estimates and Projections Table’; figures from July 2012, last updated on September 27, 2012 The views expressed in this analysis are those of the authors, and not those of the Centre on Governance or the University of Ottawa. 2013 3 Foreword Last year the Centre on Governance partnered with the Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA) to produce the first edition of this analysis, examining the impact of provincial and territorial Budgets on the cultural sector. About mid-way through this project, the CCA was forced to suspend operations due to the loss of federal government support. However, with the help of many committed volunteers we were able to complete the analysis, entitled Flat-Lined but Still Alive – Analyses of the Provincial and Territorial 2012-2013 Budgets from the Perspective of Arts, Culture and Heritage, which can be found on the Centre on Governance’s website. Although the CCA has not been able to reopen its doors, the former National Director of the organization, Alain Pineau, agreed to work with the Centre on Governance to produce a somewhat abbreviated version of last year’s publication. This year’s version, Gloom and Glee – Analyses of the Provincial and Territorial 2013-2014 Budgets from the Perspective of Arts, Culture and Heritage, was put together by M. Sharon Jeannotte and Alain Pineau. It is based on the model initiated last year, but lacks the detail that was provided by contracted authors on the ground in each province and territory. Unfortunately, the financial climate has made it impossible to solicit similar contributions this year. Nevertheless, contacts have been made with stakeholders in these jurisdictions to verify facts and to get a sense of the impact of the Budgets on the cultural sector and of the reaction among cultural stakeholders. Last year, we outlined the problems of doing inter-provincial and inter-territorial comparisons of cultural policies and programs, but decided to make the attempt because no pan-Canadian overviews on the subject of cultural funding at the sub-national level existed. That is still the case today. With the demise of Statistics Canada’s survey of Government Expenditures on Culture we believe that even the narrow snapshot that we are able to provide on provincial and territorial support for culture will contribute to knowledge about the overall health of the sector. Caroline Andrew Director, Centre on Governance University of Ottawa December 2013 4 Acknowledgements This document was produced on a volunteer basis with the help and support of the following individuals: Co-Authors: M. Sharon Jeannotte Alain Pineau Research Meghan Hum Research Supervision Monica Gattinger Publishing Angela Franovic Kimberley Wilson 5 Table of Contents Overview…………………………………………………..6 Alberta……………………………………………………16 British Columbia…………………………………………27 Manitoba………………………………………………....40 New Brunswick…………………………………………..50 Newfoundland and Labrador…………………………..57 Northwest Territories……………………………………70 Nova Scotia………………………………………………77 Nunavut…………………………………………………..89 Ontario……………………………………………………97 Prince Edward Island………………………………….112 Quebec………………………………………………….121 Saskatchewan………………………………………….133 Yukon……………………………………………………150 6 Gloom and Glee – Overview Introduction In the world of provincial and territorial Budgets in 2013, some governments delivered good news in the shape of surpluses and lowered taxes. Others delivered bad news, which usually meant deficits and tax increases. However, for the cultural sector, surpluses were not necessarily received with glee, and deficits with gloom. Memories appear to be long in the sector, and as we reviewed the latest provincial and territorial Budgets, all of which were delivered in 2013 except for Quebec’s, which dated from November 2012, we found a certain “path dependency”. What had occurred in the 2012 Budgets often had a continuing impact on support for culture, and the cultural community’s reaction to the 2013 Budgets was sometimes at odds with the news they conveyed. Context The provinces and territories continued to focus on deficit reduction in 2013-14, but this had an uneven impact on the cultural sector. This year British Columbia, Nova Scotia, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Saskatchewan, and Yukon had or were projecting surpluses, but all were still practising restraint. On the other hand, Alberta, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec were in deficit situations, but not all curtailed cultural spending. All provinces and territories struggled with growing health care costs, and some, such as Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and the Northwest Territories introduced measures to deal with addictions and mental health problems. In the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, the Budgets had a heavy focus on housing and education for young and growing populations. In 2013, Manitoba was still dealing with the aftermath of serious floods in 2011, and while Alberta’s Budget preceded the floods of July 2013, that province is facing considerable increased expenditures over several years to deal with the resulting displacements and infrastructure damage (over one billion dollars this current fiscal year alone). Provinces and territories adopted both defensive and proactive strategies to deal with declining revenues or increased costs. Expenditure restraint was the principal defensive strategy adopted by governments. British Columbia, Ontario, and Newfoundland and Labrador were either limiting wage increases or laying off public servants as part of their restraint measures, while New Brunswick was taking measures to limit sick leave within its public service. Several provinces, such as Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador imposed government-wide restraint 7 programs, with New Brunswick going so far as to cap Medicare billings for the next two years. And at the end of November, Alberta has just joined the fray and tabled a bill that would revoke the right of its largest unions to go to arbitration and impose a two-year wage freeze followed by two successive yearly increases of one percent, as already accepted by Alberta teachers and doctors. On the proactive front, many provinces and territories introduced measures to increase revenues. Increases in tobacco taxes were popular and were announced in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and Newfoundland and Labrador. British Columbia, Quebec, Nunavut and New Brunswick increased income tax rates (Quebec and BC selectively and New Brunswick across the board). Corporate tax rates went up in New Brunswick and British Columbia, while Manitoba increased its provincial sales tax. Nova Scotia, where the NDP government promised to reduce the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) by one percentage point in 2014 and 2015, was an exception (however, this was not enough to ward off defeat in the subsequent provincial election). Impact of provincial and territorial Budgets on the cultural sector In the cultural sector, impending elections or minority governments appeared to encourage the ruling parties to be more generous toward the cultural sector. As we noted in last year’s analysis of provincial and territorial Budgets1, among the provinces, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, and Prince Edward Island consistently ranked among the top five in per capita spending on culture between 2007 and 2010.2 However, this year several provinces that fell into the bottom half of the ranking made significant investments in the cultural sector, notably British Columbia, Ontario, and Nova Scotia. At the time their Budgets were pronounced, both British Columbia and Nova Scotia were on the verge of elections, while Ontario’s minority government was seeking support from one of the minority parties to avoid a non-confidence vote. On the other hand, the aftermath of the Alberta and Quebec elections of 2012 had a less positive effect, leading to either flat or reduced funding for the sector. In some of the more traditionally generous provinces, such as Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Saskatchewan, cuts or significant reprofilings of cultural expenditures caused much anxiety within the cultural community. In the three northern territories – Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut – where per capita spending on culture is much higher than in the provinces due, in part, to the differing basket of items they count as cultural spending, expenditures remained relatively stable. Only Prince Edward Island maintained its “generous” stance, as the government provided significantly augmented support under the PEI 2014 fund, set up in 2012 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Charlottetown Conference and the birth of the Canadian Confederation. 1 Flat-lined but Still Alive . 2 These figures were calculated by Hill Strategies based on the Statistics Canada publication Government Expenditures on Culture, which was discontinued in 2012. 8 Impact on the cultural industries On the surface, several

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