October 11, 2007

LIBERALS RETURN TO FORM ONTARIO GOVERNMENT

The Liberals swept into power in yesterday’s provincial election, with Premier McGuinty becoming the second Liberal Premier to win back-to-back majorities since 1937. Out of a total of 107 seats in the Legislature, the Liberals elected 71 MPP’s with 42 % of the vote, the Conservatives 26 with 32 % , with Leader John Tory losing in his riding to Liberal Kathleen Wynne (Minister of Education in the previous government), the NDP with 10 MPP’s and 17 % of the vote with a small increase in % of the vote, and the Green Party with no elected member but with an increase of 5 % of the popular vote. For complete and up to date election results click here. The referendum on electoral reform was defeated with the electorate voting to retain the status quo or First-Past-the-Post option.

Former Minister of Culture, Caroline Di Cocco, lost her seat in the riding of Sarnia-Lambton to Conservative candidate Bob Bailey. Minister Di Cocco was known to our community as a strong museum and heritage supporter and worked closely with the OMA and its members to successfully secure additional operating funding for the CMOG program. However, her election loss was played out at the local level. According to Michael Valpy in today’s The Globe and Mail “ Ms. Di Cocco, the only cabinet minister to be defeated, was popular in her riding until she got whacked by a $ 179-million cost overrun on the refurbishing of a local hospital- more than double the original estimate. Ms. Di Cocco initially denied receiving a letter from Health Minister George Smitherman in August informing her of the true cost of the project, leaving her open to attacks from the Conservatives that she was trying to hide the numbers. The NDP demanded that she forfeit her seat because either she knew and was hiding the fact or should have known what the hospital’s costs would be.”

This will now mean a new appointment to the Ministry of Culture portfolio and an opportunity for the OMA and its members to create greater awareness of museum sector needs with the new Minister when s/he is appointed.

As to election promises on culture, then Minister Di Cocco launched the Liberal Culture program as part of the overall campaign platform on September 22 (at the ROM) for more on the Liberal platform click here.

The OMA encourages all members to send letters of congratulations to the Premier and to your newly elected local MPP. Stay tuned as we await the appointment of the new Minister of Culture.

Join us at the OMA conference as we discuss positioning of the museum sector for greater provincial support during a special session with The Advocacy Group expert, Micheline McKay, OMA’s executive director Marie Lalonde. Also hear the latest on the national scene and the National Museum Policy from CMA Deputy Director Monique Horth.

Please find additional information below received prior to the elections, and reprinted with permission, from The Arts Advocate , Volume XXIII, Issue 4 :

The Liberal culture plan: Creative People, Prosperous Province, 2007

The Liberal cultural policy platform is centred on five themes:
- Creating vibrant communities;
- Stimulating economic development, research and innovation;
- Supporting youth and the arts;
- Support to the cultural renaissance;
- Nurturing artists.

Each theme has funding attached that, in almost all cases, goes well beyond the specifics provided by the PCs. Both the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star add it all up to $75 million, though one would want to read the fine print carefully before taking that number as gospel truth.

As anticipated, the focus on communities centres on municipal cultural planning, a hot theme in the halls of the Ministry of Culture. The promise of $5 million annually comes with it.

Added to that is a promise of a $40 million cultural capital program for municipalities and an increase to museums and heritage preservation support of $650,000 annually. Both cultural capital and museums operating are big issues for groups like ArtsBuild and the Ontario Museum Association. Culture Minister Di Cocco wasn’t able to provide any specifics on the roll out of such initiatives, but the pledges go some way –not all the way – in addressing the concerns and requests of some key stakeholder groups.

One of the big winners in the Liberal platform is the film industry, promised $50 million annually to increase film and television tax credits and provide upfront support for producers at the start of a production. (The Conservatives promise $5 million to better finance film, TV and new media companies and front end loading of tax credits.) Reportedly, the Liberal pledges go the furthest in addressing many of the recommendations of a Price Waterhouse Coopers report commissioned by Film Ontario and others, with the purpose of strengthening support to the film sector. The Entertainment and Creative Cluster Fund, announced in a Liberal budget, is also increased in the new cultural platform.

The Liberals decline to promise renewed support to the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, an initiative of the Harris government and one endorsed by John Tory; but they do promise a new $15 million special events fund for cultural agencies to host blockbuster attractions.

For artists and arts organizations, the Liberal party promises an additional $5 million a year to the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), beyond the commitments already made to 2009/10. This would bring the annual increase to the OAC to $20 million. (The original request from the OAC was a $35 million increase.)

Youth and education also get a nod, with the claim that the Liberals have invested $25 million in arts and music education programs since they took office in 2003. They promise to continue with the introduction of ARTSPIRE, a $1 million a year fund focused on marginalized youth.

The Liberals stay clear of promising much in the way of stronger Status of the Artist legislation. Instead, they focus on the framework they provided in the Status of Ontario’s Artists Act, 2007, pledging to support artists through training and professional development opportunities, creating forums for access to information, among others.

With its focus on all parts of the cultural sector, the Liberal platform is more comprehensive than that of the Progressive Conservatives. (The PC platform is silent on museums and heritage.) That said, the Liberal platform has come in for a rough ride due to its relatively late release in the campaign (20 September). Some question whether this means that there is little weight to these promises. Given the Opposition’s focus on broken promises in this current election, and the lengths the Liberal government went to to fulfill the cultural pledges of the 2003 platform, one would have to believe the party would not stray from its commitments, if re-elected.
 

Marie G. Lalonde
Executive Director
Ontario Museum Associationr
oma@museumsontario.com
416-348-8672
or toll-free in Ontario 1-866-OMA-8672