Interview with New Democratic Party Candidate for Saskatoon Riversdale, Danielle Chartier

Interview with New Democratic Party candidate for Saskatoon Riversdale, Danielle Chartier Q: Does your party have an arts and creative industries policy and a vision for the sustainability of the arts in Saskatchewan? If so, please summarize. Danielle Chartier: You bet. The NDP absolutely supports the arts and culture sectors. The bottom line is that arts and culture are all about creating a progressive, vibrant society. Do you want to live in a world where you’ve got colour, where you’ve got people who challenge and inspire, or… what kind of world do you want to live in? So the NDP absolutely supports the arts and culture sectors. As well as creating a much nicer place to live, there’s so much economic activity that spins off. So whether it’s someone who is a member of the Saskatchewan Crafts Council or someone in the film industry the bottom line is too that arts and culture have a huge economic impact in our province so the arts are a key to a thriving and vibrant community and economy. Q: What immediate initiatives is your party proposing to ensure and improve the circumstances of individual artists and arts organizations in Saskatchewan? DC: The arts and culture sector is incredibly unique. So I think the bottom line, consultation, and good and real and meaningful consultation is absolutely imperative. The Sask Party Government implemented the first arts policy, well they say it’s the first arts policy, but they implemented an arts policy but the biggest complaint that I’ve had from artists, or that I’ve heard from people in the community is that a policy is wonderful but you need the legs to that policy, the resources, you need the financial resources and the support to bring life to that policy so that consultation that I talked about would involve connecting with artists and arts organizations to make sure that we are putting legs to that cultural policy instead of one-off ad hoc programs that happen. There’s many things in the NDP platform that are around ensuring and supporting employees in non- traditional jobs. The reality is artists who are some of our most educated people in our society there’s many statistics show that they’re the lowest paid or have a hard time cobbling together a living. And there’s things in our policy platform that support that. For example I have a friend Vanessa who is a painter. Vanessa’s children should be able to receive dental care, so that’s one of the things we’re proposing. Or you should be able to pay your rent and live in decent and appropriate accommodations, so rent control and ensuring that none of us are impacted by sky-rocketing rent. We also have a grant that will be available to individuals buying their first home to help with closing costs up to $2000 so those kinds of things help make life affordable for many people but also for artists who despite their education and their talents still are not properly compensated. Q: What about arts in creative industries like filmmaking and publishing and so on? What measures do you propose to enhance these as part of provincial economic strategy? DC: It’s really important not just to invest in arts but in artists. Artists tend to work in non-traditional employments, it’s not like your average Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 day. So in the film industry, you might have a busier summer season and then some down time. Or writers who don’t have extended health benefits or you have perhaps someone, a visual artist, who is working on their Master’s or their PhD and also needs support through education, so making sure that education is affordable or making sure that these benefits are available to all citizens, including artists who currently don’t have the benefit of a big employee plan that many of us have. Q: Do you support increasing the budget of the Saskatchewan Arts Board, and if so to what level and over what time frame? DC: Absolutely, supporting the arts board. We see at least a 4% increase annually, that’s the projections that we’ve done, around ensuring as I said that’s a minimum and that’s just to keep up with population and inflation. I know that there’s a small increase to the arts board budget this year, but from my understanding it’s barely enough to cover the costs of current collective bargaining agreements so you need to fund organizations properly and we would be committing to at least a 4% annual increase to the arts board. Q: Do you support maintaining the status of the Arts Board as an arm’s length agency? DC: I’m not an artist myself, but I’ve never heard an artist with whom I’ve had a conversation who thinks it’s a good idea to shorten that arm’s length relationship. So the NDP absolutely supports making sure that the decisions for funding programming are made by people who know what the heck they’re talking about. Q: The Saskatchewan Party Government has adopted an Arts Professions Act as a first step toward improving the condition of artists in the province. What does your party see as the next step or steps over the next four years to improve the fiscal condition and social safety net available to self- employed artists? DC: We’re definitely supportive of the Arts Professions Act. There’s no doubt there’s a good thing about being able to recognize people who are involved in the arts as professionals and it’s also the idea of a contract is good but when it’s not enforceable by anything except hiring a lawyer, there’s some difficulty with that for sure. So we’re supportive of that but I think that there’s much to build on. I know that there was lots of very good work done around Status of the Artist. And I’ve spoken to many people who believe that the opportunity to collectively bargain, to be able to have pension benefits all those kinds of things would be very good. So again it’s about consultation and building on a lot of the very good work that has already happened and putting legs to that very good work. Q: Does your party support allowing professional artists access to economic and social programs, benefits and rights such as collective bargaining, pensions, workers’ compensation? DC: One thing that this government has done is made it more difficult for the average person to unionize with Bill 6, with the Trade Union Act so it becomes much harder to organize a shop whether it’s ACTRA or the DGC or anything like that so we would be immediately implementing the essential services act and the Trade Union Act the changes that have been made. So aside from all this stuff around Status of the Artist, there’s also that opportunity to join existing unions and make it easier for people to be able to put their collective bargaining rights into action. Q: Saskatchewan Lotteries is a fundraiser that supports community arts and culture and has served the people of the province well for many years. Does your party intend to maintain the status quo or does it have other plans for the lotteries? DC: We currently have no other plans for the Lotteries though I do know, and these aren’t funded by the Lotteries, but the Creative Industries haven’t seen a huge increase in their funding, they don’t get Lottery funding, they get general revenue funding, I believe. And I know that there has been little increase in the five components of the creative industries and I know that they would’ve liked to have seen more funding. Q: Does your party believe in working cooperatively with artists and arts organizations to achieve some of the goals you’ve articulated? DC: I don’t think you can do it any other way other than cooperatively with the people who know what they are talking about, the people who are impacted by policy. There’s absolutely no doubt that working cooperatively with artists and arts organizations is the only way to create good public policy. .

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