APAC and its member organizations understand that a strong, sustainable and vibrant arts and cultural sector plays an important role in Alberta’s success, reputation, future growth and the vitality of our communities. The Alberta election has resulted in the formation of a UCP majority government. APAC will continue to work with the Government of Alberta advocating for Arts and Culture.
What follows is the UCP’s Arts and Culture policy from the 2019 election campaign.
United Conservative Party Platform
“Alberta’s cultural industries are an important part of our life as a community. Art can inspire through beauty, who we are, and transmit our culture from one generation to the next. Culture is an expression of civil society, and should be supported but not directed by government.
Alberta’s vibrant cultural industries also make an important and growing contribution to our economy. Getting Alberta back to work and diversifying our economy will require supporting the growth of cultural enterprises.
A United Conservative government will:
- Continue funding support for arts and cultural organizations
- Convert the Alberta Screen-Based Production Grant into a tax credit with greater flexibility to allow Alberta to compete for major media projects with provinces like British Columbia and Ontario; we will consult with stakeholders in the film, television and digital media industries to create an optimal tax credit designed to attract large productions and series
- Incentivize media production in rural areas, following the lead of Manitoba’s film tax credit
- Adopt an Arts Professions Act modelled on the 2009 Saskatchewan statute, to give formal recognition to artists, their representative associations, their freedom of expression, and their economic – including contractual – rights.
- Support the recommendation of the Canadian Artists’ Representation to have the federal Parliament amend the Copyright Act to require that a 5% royalty be paid to visual artists on the resale of their work
- Repro le a portion of Alberta Lottery Fund revenue to support a Creative Partnerships Alberta program, emulating the success of Creative Partnerships Australia to:
• Mentor and assist artists and arts organizations in generating income and support from the private sector
- Build partnerships between the arts, philanthropy and business sector
- Establish a goal of growing Alberta cultural industries by 25%, or $1.5 billion over the next decade
A United Conservative government will ensure we can compete with other provinces in attracting media productions, support the creative rights of artists, maintain support for the creative sector, and encourage greater private sector support for the arts in order to grow the sector by $1.5 billion over the next decade.”