Sent to all MLA's by email
Nova Scotia has just received a very public slap on the
wrists via the Oscars
Cape Breton production designer blasts cuts to Nova Scotia arts sector after Oscars win
After winning an Oscar with Dartmouth's Shane Vieau for production design for Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, Tamara Deverell said in a press room interview.
“I’m living in Nova Scotia right now, which is getting arts cuts by the provincial government, which is making it really difficult to support artists like me and Shane who need to grow [and] young people who need to learn. Art is important. It’s essential to our human culture and well-being.”
Art matters. Arts, Cultural Heritage and Tourism are big drivers of our economy. Will tourists come here so they can cross a bridge with no tolls, pay 1% less in sales tax and visit abandoned toxic mining sites? Visitors come because we are a beautiful, welcoming province with a unique mixture of cultures and interesting history and friendly people.
Parking fees at hospitals, a form of taxation, were not popular, but in removing them, we lost roughly $10 million in annual revenue that went toward Nova Scotia’s health care programs. One way or another, this revenue has been lost and will raise its head as a different kind of tax or service reduction. There must have been a better way to assist people for whom the parking fee was difficult. I didn’t mind paying knowing where the money was going.
The premier, who has used the word “common senses” on more than one occasion, claims that he is making these cuts to “protect frontline services, specifically healthcare and long-term care beds.” If so, then one must ask how this served by granting a million dollars to Sail Nova Scotia so billionaires can come to our harbour to race each other in a two-day SailGP mega event with an additional $1 million coming from Halifax Regional Municipality’s marketing levy reserve. Meanwhile funds are being cut from our namesake boat, the Bluenose, local museums and other tourism attractions. Who will get the $16 million the race is predicted to bring in? It sure looks like it won’t be Halifax. SailGP is not yet profitable. A significant portion of revenue is to be reinvested by founders Larry Ellison and Sir Russell Coutts into expanding the SailGP league for billionaires and their investors. Either one of those men could do that from their own fortunes. Remember good old Joseph Howe who liked to ask “What is for the public good?” It’s on a mural in downtown Dartmouth. I walk past it frequently and pause to consider.
Montreal-based filmmakers lead Canadian Oscar wins with animated short victory
In addition to Deverell and Vieau two more Canadians contributed to Frankenstein's best makeup and hairstyling win. Charlie Keil, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Cinema Studies Institute, said del Toro frequently chooses to work in Canada, pointing to the country’s depth of talent. Where will tomorrow’s talent come from if not from our present leaders in the Arts mentoring them.
According to the Canada Council for the Arts
The arts make a vital contribution to the economy
The arts strengthen society
The arts improve health and wellbeing
In the mid ‘90s, I abandoned a civil service career as a public library administrator to work as a storyteller in a pilot project called "Learning through the Arts" (LTTA) in rural Newfoundland. It was created by The Royal Conservatory of Music in response to massive “common sense” cuts to the Arts in Ontario by the Mike Harris Government. LTTA obtained private funding and enlisted the participation of a number of school boards across Canada. Participating artists were required to be familiar with the curriculum, work with teachers to develop activities that reflected the relevant portions of the curriculum and create and deliver a lesson plan – all this for a glorious $40 an hour for each one hour presentation, and a lot of unpaid travel time.
The program was studied in depth throughout. Research showed a definite improvement in math and language skills in schools that offered the program compared to those that did not have arts programs. It was challenging and exciting. Could I come up with folktales to demonstrate Venn Diagrams? Yes, I could. In the end, I felt as though I had made a much bigger contribution to young people of my region than I had as a library administrator. Years later, students, recognizing me in the communities, told me these visits had made a difference in their lives. Artists make a difference. For example, local storytellers volunteer in Halifax area in many ways in our community, recently with the Prescott Group, a program for disabled adults. It was targeted in the initial round of cuts but funding was just restored.
The “common-sense” folks are always with us. They are people who don’t have a clue what really matters. They ensorcell with meaningless slogans to gain power but don’t understand what is happening outside their gated habitats. They are still among us. In our country we have the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. They are on steroids south of the border.
“Taxation is the price we pay for civilization.”
U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
I don’t mind paying taxes for protecting democracy and civilization and helping keep my fellow citizens from falling into the many cracks created by our corporate world, and welcoming people whom the destruction of human habitat, whether by war or other disasters and climate change, has driven from their homes. It angers me to see my taxes going to projects for over-privileged people, many of whom failed to pay their share. My only “offshore account” is a modest tax-free savings account, but I’m aware even that is beyond the means of many Nova Scotians, which makes me a privileged person. Civilization becomes more complex by the day. Machines really are replacing people. People with the money seek cheaper and cheaper labour in the global market. Slavery still exists. The increase in the wealth gap leads to anger, destabilization, polarization and a downward spiral into authoritarian regimes. If you don’t believe that, ask Mr. Google. I’m not making this up.
We need to give more respect to the people who make our civilization worthwhile. Civilization is about telling and listening to stories. That is the work of artists.
We cannot let this premier who created his own deficit by authorizing spending outside proper planning channels and legislation, cut back number of legislative sessions and debate time and failed utterly to discuss options with citizens and, and it would appear, even his own MLA's, to get away with this.
