Does Prime Minister Stephen Harper have something against North America’s largest Caribbean festival?

 This is an article I pulled from today's Toronto Star
Does Prime Minister Stephen Harper have something against North America’s largest Caribbean festival?

That’s the question organizers of the 2013 Scotiabank Caribbean Carnival are asking themselves on the eve of the festival’s closing weekend in Toronto, which culminates Saturday with a massive parade watched by up to a million people.

The reason for their question is simple: the Harper government has once again this summer stiffed the two-week festival by offering it a measly last-minute grant of only $13,000.

The grant was so small that organizers were forced to turn it down because the cost of staging the cultural events required to qualify for the money would far exceed the size of the grant.

In fact, Ottawa has slashed spending for the Caribbean festival for the last four years. “The funding has been dropping drastically in recent years,” says Chris Alexander, the festival’s chief administrative officer. “Because of that we’ve had to cut costs and cut programs.”

In 2009, Ottawa provided a grant of $124,800. That figure dropped to $44,600 in 2010, $56,600 and $40,800 last year. The funds are earmarked for cultural arts programs such as dance, calypso, folk music and art, not the main parade.

In comparison, the City of Toronto is kicking in $525,000 this year and the Ontario government $510,000. The total festival budget is more than $2 million,

The federal snub is particularly curious considering that Ottawa still heavily supports the Calgary Stampede, Quebec Winter Carnival and many cultural events in Ontario, such as the Stratford and Shaw festivals. All of these are long-established events, compared to the Toronto Caribbean festival, which is relatively young in comparison and appeals to a more multicultural audience.

Some in Toronto’s Caribbean community have gone so far as to describe the Harper government’s decision to slash funding as “cultural racism.”

That may be too harsh a description. But Ottawa’s move to cut funding is puzzling. It’s especially odd given that the festival generates millions in taxes for Ottawa.

“We’re not asking for a lot,” Alexander says. “We don’t think of it as a handout, but as an investment, with very high returns in terms of tax revenues for the government” and intangible returns when it comes to promoting multiculturalism and diversity.

First launched in 1967 as Caribana, the festival has grown to become the biggest Caribbean-themed carnival in North America. Some 1.2 million people participate each year in the festival, with more than 300,000 coming from outside the Toronto area.

An economic impact study released in 2010 estimated the economic impact of the festival at $438 million. That tops figures for the Calgary Stampede or the Quebec Winter Carnival.

In recent years, festival organizers have worked hard to draw corporate sponsors so they aren’t so dependent on government funds. In the past, many corporations backed away from the festival after reports of financial mismanagement.

But today a new team of professional managers has restored credibility to the festival and attracted major sponsors, such as Scotiabank and Chevrolet, as well as a lengthy list of media sponsors, including the Toronto Star, CTV, CP24, Flow 93.5 and Toronto.com.

Joe Mihevc, a Toronto city councillor who has long supported the festival, felt so strongly about Ottawa’s failure “to pay its fair share” that he spoke openly about it three weeks ago at the official festival kickoff.

Of the three levels of government, Ottawa is the main beneficiary of the festival. And yet the festival “doesn’t seem to be politically significant” to the Harper government, Mihevc adds.

For Mihevc, the Caribbean festival is just as much a cultural event as the Stratford or Shaw festivals. It’s concerts, children’s events, band competitions — not just a big parade. That’s why he feels so strongly that Ottawa should match the city and provincial funding.

“They need their bums smacked,” Mihevc says of the Harper government.

At the very least, Harper needs to explain to the Caribbean community why he’s cutting funds to a cultural event that has become as iconic for Toronto as the Stampede is to Calgary Stampede and Winter Carnival is to Quebec.

Bob Hepburn’s column appears Thursday. bhepburn@thestar.ca