George W. Bush admirer Mayor Larry O'Brien wants funding to Ottawa's vital Arts Festivals stopped

Edited by John Stokes

	Larry O’Brien.

Events such as the Ottawa Tulip Festival and Ottawa Bluesfest, prizes such as the Ottawa Book Awards and groups such as choirs and heritage societies would lose every penny of their annual funding under cuts proposed to balance the City of Ottawa's 2009 budget.

City staff under the right wing guidance of Mayor Larry O'Brien, recommended $4.1 million in cuts to the city's arts and culture programs when they recently released the 2009 draft budget.

Details of the cuts are outlined in documents obtained by many of the 286 affected groups and individuals, many of whom were to meet Monday to discuss what to do about the proposals.

Those that would lose 100 per cent of their funding include:

Some larger, more established organizations such as Opera Lyra and the Independent Filmmakers Co-operative of Ottawa (IFCO) would lose 42 per cent of their funding.

Groups such as the Ottawa Arts Court Foundation and the Ottawa Art Gallery and museums such as the Bytown Museum, which have multi-year agreements to provide services to the city, would see cuts of 10 to 24 per cent, while endowment funds would remain untouched.

Cuts will kill jobs, hurt economy: artists

Independent filmmaker Penny McCann said the festivals bring tourists to Ottawa, and while many of the large cuts to their budgets will save $100,000 each, they will remove far more than that from the local economy at a time at a crucial time.

David Flemming, president of the group Heritage Ottawa, which advocates to protect old buildings, said many people will lose their jobs — nine due to the heritage cuts alone. He said his organization, which relies on volunteers, will survive, although it would lose its office under the cuts.

Patrice James, executive director of IFCO, said she's not sure how her organization will weather its budget cut.

"I don't know if we can recover from that in certain ways, so it could compromise the integrity of programming."

Public consultations on the draft budget will be held until Nov. 27. Council will also hear from public delegations on Dec. 1-2 and, if necessary, Dec. 3 before approving the final budget by Dec. 5.

The City of Ottawa staff has presented a budget to the Council that calls for an over 40% reduction in arts funding and 100% elimination of festival funding for 2009. Obviously, for anyone who believes in the value of the arts – ALL the arts including theatre, music, dance, the literary and visual arts, media arts, heritage, and festivals -- this is not acceptable. No other sector is being treated so callously. In fact, the cultural sector is being asked to contribute over $4 million in savings – more than any other single sector.

If the City of Ottawa is serious about saving money, it should redress the on-going apparent corruption that systematically wastes taxpayers money. The arts community is a vital part of Ottawa's social cultural fabric, civic identity, and local economy.

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