Canadian Conference of the Arts ends 67-year run

The Canadian Conference of the Arts is folding this week, ending a 67-year run as the country’s oldest and largest arts advocacy organization. The official announcement is to be made Tuesday in Ottawa by CCA national director Alain Pineau.

The collapse of the CCA comes in the wake of the Harper government’s decision earlier this year not to provide $780,000 the organization said it needed to transition to being self-sustaining. The hope was the self-sustaining model could be fully implemented by mid-2015.

Never a harsh critic of governments, the CCA nevertheless didn’t hesitate to point out what it saw as their errors. Last spring, for example, it made a last-ditch push to amend the Harper government’s Copyright Modernization Act, arguing the extant bill benefited consumers more than creators and rights-holders who stood to lose $126-million if enacted. (The act became law in late June this year.)

In a statement Monday, Sébastien Gariépy, press secretary for Heritage Minister James Moore, indicated it was unlikely there would be any last-minute reprieve from government. “For over 35 years this organization has received up to 60 per cent of its budget from the government of Canada, including this year when funding was provided to give the [CCA] the opportunity to work with individual and groups it claims as stakeholders to develop a new mandate and funding model.” Gariepy said the Harper government has delivered “unprecedented” support to the arts and would continue to invest in programs deemed “affordable and effective.”

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Canadian Conference of the Arts ends 67-year run