MONTREAL - Athletes may own the podium but arts groups are hoping culture might also share a spot on centre stage when Finance Minister Jim Flaherty tables his budget on Thursday.
The chair of one prominent cultural organization welcomed reports the federal government might double its $11 million funding for the Own the Podium program for Olympic athletes.
He's hoping the arts community might benefit from a similar effort.
"People now see that we achieved a lot with targeted investment in sports and I'm arguing that we could do a parallel for arts and culture," said Simon Brault, the chair of Culture Montreal and CEO of the National Theatre School of Canada.
The 2009 federal budget announced $535 million in funding over two years for the arts, heritage and cultural industries, with $276 million of that being new money.
That largesse followed the return of the Conservatives to power with another minority government after a bruising campaign where culture was front-and-centre.
Culture exploded as an issue in the 2008 campaign after $45 million in cuts were cast by the Bloc Quebecois as an attack on Quebec culture.
Among the programs chopped was the Arts Promotion and Trade Routes initiative, which helped promote Canadian artists' work abroad.
The Conservatives said they were taking the money from non-performing programs and putting it into a variety of other projects, including the Winter Games and the 400th anniversary celebrations in Quebec City.
Brault said he didn't expect any funding cuts in Thursday's budget, but he was also hoping that some programs due to expire at the end of this year would continue.
Brault also said he hoped there would be federal funding for promoting Canadian arts abroad and that Ottawa would follow the example of some other countries, with money to help defray touring costs, for example.
A good chunk of the new federal culture funding was announced in last year's federal stimulus package.
Cultural groups will be scrutinizing Thursday's budget for signs about what will happen to arts funding over the long term.
Kathleen Sharpe, president of the board of governors of the Canadian Conference of the Arts, said her organization is hoping for stable long-term funding for programs renewed in the last budget.
"The CCA is looking for increased investment in market and audience development for arts and culture within Canada and abroad, as well as increased investment in the creative economy," she said.
The Just for Laughs Group, which runs Montreal's huge annual comedy festival, says $3 million from the Marquee Tourism Events Program, which was part of the stimulus program, helped during the recession.
That funding is scheduled to wind down next year.
"That money allowed us to continue to push hard, marketing-wise, and also continue to develop programming that was attractive from a tourism standpoint even though it was a harder sell because of the economy," said David Heurtel, director of public affairs for Just for Laughs.
He knows that all organizations will have to work harder for their government money as Ottawa prepares to tackle the deficit.
"Our job is to ultimately show the government that it's a worthwhile investment and it's still a worthwhile investment even in more difficult times," Heurtel said.
Brault agreed. He said he didn't expect a lot of surprises in this year's budget -- but was already looking ahead to the upcoming deficit-fighting years.
"What is really important is trying to decode what the signals are for the year to come because obviously there is a need to control public expenses and face what is a very big deficit in Canada," Brault said.
Arts groups contacted in advance of the budget said they were generally happy with cultural funding, saying it had been relatively stable, but several said more had to be done to extend the international reach of Canada's arts.
In June, Heritage Minister James Moore pledged five years of reliable funding for the arts, saying the cultural sector needed "stability."
The measures included an annual budget of $181 million for the Canada Council over five years. As well, the program to restore Canada's museums and heritage sites was extended by two years.
