CALL TO ACTION - URGENT!

THE CITY IS PROPOSING AN 80% CUT TO GCTC'S 2004 GRANT.

Please write or fax your City of Ottawa Councillor NOW (don't send an e-mail or leave a phone message - they can delete or ignore it)

Here's what GCTC 30th Season will look like with an 80% cut:

  • Only 30 performers onstage in our 8-Play season (compared to 44 this season)
  • No Acoustic Waves concert series
  • No Playwrights' Unit, new play commissions, workshops or play development
  • Production budgets cut
  • Marketing budgets cut
  • Immediate wage freeze for GCTC staff (who average $31,000 a year, no overtime)
  • 3 of our 8 full-time staff positions cut
  • 15% - 18% ticket price increases

Please tell your councillor that:

  1. Arts funding is not a "handout" but an investment in the city's health and future: $3.4 million in the arts budget generates $35 million of direct spending by arts organizations here in Ottawa (one dollar generates ten);
  2. Even at 2003 levels, the City of Ottawa provides only the bare minimum of investment in the arts — $3.89 per capita here as opposed to over $20 in Vancouver — and is already dead last amongst major Canadian cities in support of the arts;
  3. City staff who prepared this draft budget are attacking the arts disproportionately: the 80% – 100% proposed cut to arts funding takes up 36.4% of the cuts to People Services and 8.8% of the entire City's programming cuts (current arts funding? 0.5% of city program budgets);
  4. When businesses or tourists ask, what makes a certain city a great place to live, invest in or visit, vibrant cultural activities are at the top of the list — hadn't they noticed?

Please tell your councillor that you don't want to live in an Ottawa devastated by cuts to the arts, and that, as a constituent and voter, you will hold him or her accountable in the next election for any cuts to the arts.

(You'll find your councillor's name and contact information at www.ottawa.caunder the 'City Councillors' link, and also at our website - www.gctc.ca - with a full text of a letter to send (below); or e-mail info@gctc.ca for the document to be sent to you).

And please make sure you're at City Hall on Thursday March 4th at 12:00 noon to be one of (we need) thousands rallying in support of the arts as the Health, Recreation and Social Services Committee considers its budget recommendations. More information to come!

Here is a letter that you can use to send your councillor. Just copy the text into a word doc.

February 2004

Name of Councillor 
Ward 
Address

Dear Name of Councillor:

As your constituent and a voter, I am writing to express my outrage at the 80% – 100% cuts to arts funding proposed in the City of Ottawa's 2004 draft budget.

Arts funding is not a "handout" but an investment in the city's health and future: $3.4 million in the arts budget generates $35 million of direct spending by arts organizations here in Ottawa (one dollar generates ten). Ticket sales to arts events generate over three times their value in additional spending (restaurants, accommodations, suppliers and other services). Why would you eliminate an investment that generates such great returns?

Even at 2003 levels, the City of Ottawa provides only the bare minimum of investment in arts, heritage and festivals: $3.89 per capita here as opposed to $5.26 in Toronto, $6.56 in Calgary, $11.32 in Montreal and $11.64 in Vancouver — dead last amongst major Canadian cities in support of the arts. Why would you want (by cutting Ottawa's per capita cultural investment to 57 cents) to ensure that you and your fellow councillors are a laughing-stock across the country?

In those cities where municipal investment in the arts is higher, other levels of government also make higher investments (and Ottawa's arts organizations currently attract lower federal/ provincial investments than their peers across Canada). Why would you deny Ottawa's artists their ability to bring better levels of government investment to the benefit of our city?

And why would you allow the city staff who prepared this draft budget to attack the arts disproportionately? Arts, heritage and festivals take up 2% of the People Services department's net budget (and less than 0.5% of the city's entire program budget), but the 80% - 100% proposed cut to the cultural sector is 36.4 % of the cuts to People Services.

When businesses or tourists ask, what makes a certain city a great place to live, invest in or visit, vibrant cultural activities are at the top of the list. Hadn't you noticed?

I don't want my Ottawa to be devastated by these funding cuts to the arts. You must vote to reinstate arts funding completely, because it's already way below what is acceptable across Canada. Ottawa's cultural sector has never had adequate city investment.

As your constituent and a voter, I will hold you accountable at the next election for the way you vote on arts funding in the City of Ottawa's 2004 budget.

Sincerely,

Name
Address