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
2 comments:
This is sad news. The cultural events are supposed to be the backbone of the carnival. The parade id just the big finish. Those are the events that are for the families. We are undervalued at every turn and this proves it. The problem is that our cultural festival is being taken over taken by partying. There are fewer family events every year. And
Very interesting post!
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