Ms Blakeman: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Our arts organizations were told last summer that cuts might be 10 to 15 per cent, but they should hold on as things might change. 

Yet here we are in the new fiscal year. The budget cuts were 19 per cent, but groups are still holding on and haven’t been told and are trying to budget for their 2010-11 seasons without knowing their final numbers. Contrary to the minister’s written response, there is a fair notice policy for grant suspension; it’s just not being used. So my questions are to the Minister of Culture and Community Spirit. When will arts organizations be given the final grant numbers reflecting the 19 per cent cut?

Mr. Blackett: Well, Mr. Speaker, I had stated in estimates that we would be working through those through our arts department, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. The organizations will be notified of the amount that they will be receiving in short order.

Ms Blakeman: Well, he’s the minister of culture. Does he not understand the timelines that most of these organizations are working upon? They have to release their seasons, do all of the media, print brochures, hire people, even choose which shows. How long is he going to make them wait?

Mr. Blackett: Mr. Speaker, our staff in our department has been in contact with many of these organizations on an ongoing basis. We have said that most of the money that will be found will be realized through savings or efficiencies. It will not go to grant reductions to those organizations. We’re trying to work through that to make sure that is the case. Right now my department is giving me no indication that any one of these organizations will not be funded to the extent that they were last year.

Ms Blakeman: I’ll be interested in how 20 per cent can be found out of administrative.

Given that the AFA has an actual fair notice policy to inform and work with struggling groups that may see their funding cut, why is the minister not following a similar policy to work with organizations that lose funding because of these government cutbacks?

You’re not going to find it in administration.

Mr. Blackett: Well, to answer the question, the comment that the hon. member made, last year we had a reduction of $8.9 million. We were able through efficiencies to realize the savings, and we were able to fund every one of those not-for-profits to the level that they received a year before, as promised in the budget last year. I see no reason that we won’t be able make that commitment to them this year. We’ll see in due course if my words speak for themselves.

Royal Alberta Museum

Ms Blakeman: Thanks very much, Mr. Speaker. Getting clarity out of this government can be elusive. We have a federal MP announcing in a mailing an $85 million contribution to the Royal Alberta Museum, and then we have the Minister of Infrastructure saying that the capital plan does include the Royal Alberta Museum and the minister of culture saying that $83 million over three years will pay for a building design and maybe collection purchases. Yikes. To the Minister of Culture and Community Spirit: how do Albertans figure out where our museum is, how many will be built, who’s paying, and when it will be built? How are we supposed to know?

Mr. Blackett: Mr. Speaker, as I’ve said before in this House, I believe that the government of Alberta committed to the Museum of Nature on the Glenora site in the neighbourhood of $240 million.

We are in principle looking at a two-museum site. The first, the Museum of Nature, is on the capital plan; it has been deferred out a number of years. The federal government has not made an announcement. They have not contacted our office and indicated that they’re making any announcement, so I’m not sure what the question is.

Ms Blakeman: Okay. Well, how much of the $83 million in funding for the Royal Alberta Museum is from the federal government? You have it in print here. Is the province’s entire budget really federal money?

Mr. Blackett: Well, Mr. Speaker, the reference “you have it in print” is a reference to a publication that is not something produced by the government of Alberta. If it’s something that the federal government has produced, ask them the question since they are the ones who produced it.

Ms Blakeman: Is the minister saying that the $83 million that appears in his budget is 100 per cent money from Alberta taxpayers through provincial government coffers?

Mr. Blackett: As we said in estimates, I believe that $30 million was promised by the federal government in 2005, and the $50 million remaining, if I remember correctly, was going to come out of the Department of Culture and Community Spirit of the government of Alberta.

Alberta Hansard, April 15, 2010

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