Sample Letter
Sample Advocacy Letter
Contact Information
Minister of Finance, Colin Hansen (colin.hansen.mla@leg.bc.ca)
Minister of Tourism, Arts, and Culture, Kevin Krueger (kevin.krueger.mla@leg.bc.ca)
Premier Gordon Campbell (premier@gov.bc.ca)
Find mailing addresses and your MLA’s contact information here.
Sample Letter
Dear Minister Hansen
I am writing to protest the recent devastating and economically indefensible cuts to the BC Arts and culture industry in the past month, which included cuts to the BC Arts and Culture Special Endowment, the re-allocation of the BC Gaming Funding, and cuts from Direct taxpayer investment. As a tax payer and voter, I find these cuts unreasonable and short sighted, as the reversal of the Direct Access cuts to three year contracts proves.
Every industry expects austerity in the midst of global recession. However, every other provincial jurisdiction has seen beyond the optics of "belt-tightening" to the economic benefit of maintaining arts funding in uncertain financial times. While it may not play well to party conservatives, arts funding is actually sound fiscal sense. As the online three-year plan for culture de-funding demonstrates, there is no practical strategy linking arts cuts to the desired pay offs in tourism and economic spin off. These cuts - 80%-92% over the next year and a half - are far more severe than any sector should have to face. Is it the government's intention that the arts in BC be damaged beyond repair?
Here are some reasons why these cuts should be reversed:
1) The BC Arts Community is a working economy. We are often partially funded by taxpayers, but we also generate money: on every tax dollar invested in Arts and Culture in this province, it returns between $1.04 to $1.36 in revenues. The Arts and Culture sector in BC generates 80,000 jobs and $5.2 billion annually (Ministry of Tourism Arts and Culture Service Plans). The City of Vancouver concluded that every dollar spent on arts and cultural activity by the City resulted in almost twelve dollars in economic activity (2007 Cultural Plan). Cutting funding by 80-90% will not only devastate the arts: it will also negatively affect the rest of the economy at large. At this time when jobs and tax dollars are needed, it seems completely counter-productive to cut funding to a sector that is helping to create jobs and generate tax dollars.
2) The upcoming 2010 Olympic Games, which have demanded so much of our tax dollars, include a mandate to support culture: the second pillar of the Olympic Games is Culture; maintaining investment in the sector will allow BC to fulfill its commitments to the Winter Games and to meet its related goals of increasing Cultural Tourism and leaving a legacy in communities across the province.
3) Changing the allocation of the Gaming Funds represents a breach of the promise made to those communities which accepted casinos or slot machines based on the promise that the funds from these organizations would then be funnelled back into the arts and their communities.
As my elected representatives in our government, I demand that you ensure the following:
1) any reduction in BC Arts Council investment from 08/09 levels be kept in line with the 7% discretionary grant reduction outlined by the Ministry of Finance in the February 2009 budget. (I think we should be willing to do our part. But I do not believe we should be asked to tolerate sectoral devastation).
2) Your government restores all gaming investments to annual culture/civil society organizations
3) Your government complies with the memorandum of understanding about gaming investments, and its implied social contract with all British Columbians, and commits to reaching the 33% investment level mandated by the memorandum
4) Your government makes a clear and unambiguous public commitment to the arts and culture sector of BC.
Thank you to you and your staff for taking the time in reading this letter, and for all the work that you do to ensure the prosperity and growth of our province.
Best regards,
