The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The Saskatchewan government has released a report called ÒReflections: A Summary of 30 Years of Cultural Discussions in Saskatchewan.Ó ItÕs posted online, with citizens invited to fill out a response survey. LetÕs hope concerned taxpayers step up to the plate to bat away the sales pitches of arts advocates. Otherwise, the province could pump plenty more tax dollars to a dubious cause. People donÕt need government to give them a culture. Citizens buy art, watch films and television, dance, and celebrate traditions all on their own. When the state steps in to throw dollars at cultural goals or artistic industries, a PandoraÕs box is opened for taxpayers. Why? Because the artistic community says the value of art canÕt be defined in monetary terms, but instead by the intrinsic richness it brings to a community. Stripped of any way to quantify the value of their Òinvestment,Ó governments dish out increasingly more to an artistic lobby that is never satisfied. Saskatchewan goes even further by funding organizations that donÕt produce art, but lobby for money instead. The Saskatchewan Arts Alliance gets public dollars, and one of its roles is Òadvocating healthy levels of public and private support.Ó The alliance has succeeded. In 2003-04, SaskatchewanÕs municipal and provincial governments spent a combined $206 million on arts and culture. By comparison, the highways budget was $293 million that year. Just last fall, the province doubled its contribution to the arts board to $11 million. For what cause, exactly, no one can say. Comments in the provinceÕs ÒReflectionsÓ document prove just how contradictory cultural goals can be. In one place itÕs to Òoffer some protection against the overwhelming impact of imported culture.Ó Elsewhere, itÕs to emphasize Òthe importance of multiculturalism in our society.Ó Yet, in the next breath, the goal is to create Òactive communities that are inclusive of all races, sexualities, backgrounds, and lifestyles.Ó Is it the role of government to subsidize the entrenchment of cultural differences and eliminate disdain for any kind of sexuality or lifestyle? That sounds more like government imposing culture than promoting it. It would be better to see lotteries, and not tax dollars, become the sole means for artistic funding. After all, people play lotteries for the money, but tell themselves itÕs for the public good. ItÕs the perfect match for arts subsidy beggars who do the same. This is an edited version of an editorial by Lee Harding, Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
