O’Brien’s wish list excludes arts

By DEREK PUDDICOMBE | Ottawa Sun

O’Brien said he will be supporting all of city staff’s proposed $33 million in cuts and fee hikes to keep the property tax hike to 4.8%. The staff plan includes cutting millions of dollars for city festivals and other arts, culture and heritage programs, as well as increasing user fees for arena and pool rentals, and many other services.

“The arts is something I feel comfortable cutting,” O’Brien said.

Read the full article: O’Brien’s wish list excludes arts

My Ottawa Still Includes Culture Press Conference

Révision des prévisions budgétaires 2009 de la Ville d’Ottawa

Quality of Life in the Crosshairs

How the 2009 Ottawa City Budget Targets Quality of Life and How Little It Would Cost to Save It

November 2008

David Macdonald, PEOPLE FOR A BETTER OTTAWA

The City of Ottawa is once again engaged in its yearly budget discussions that always seem to result in higher taxes and the slashing of social services. The feeling of constant crisis at City Hall will not be avoided this year. In fact, the zero per cent tax increases Council insisted on for most of the past ten years have virtually guaranteed that the crisis will continue into the distant future.

This year, the city has targeted almost all its cuts or fee increases in three departments: Transit, Parks and Recreation and Cultural Services & Community Funding. In fact 71 per cent of the cuts are coming from 22 per cent of the departments by budget size. The cuts are not widespread but concentrated and then focused on particular areas. Not only are these departments taking the brunt of the damage to their operating budgets but their capital budgets are also being cut – redistributed to other departments. So they lose in both the operations and the capital budgets.

Read the full report from People for a Better Ottawa: Quality of Life in the Crosshairs [PDF]

1000 Cranes Campaign to Support Arts and Culture

The “1000 Cranes Campaign to Support Arts and Culture” aims at restoring all funding for arts, culture and heritage in the 2009 City of Ottawa budget.

Origami cranes named "Arts" and "Culture

The origami cranes (named “Arts” and “Culture”) were adopted as the symbols of the campaign because like their real-life counterparts, if the sustaining environment (i.e. arts and culture funding) is removed, these beautiful birds will surely disappear.

To show their support, the public is being asked to send a crane to their city councillor. The tradition of folding 1000 paper cranes represents a form of hope during challenging times.

The crane is also known as a symbol of longevity. It has a fabled life span of 1000 years. “Support for the arts needs to happen not just this year but for the next 1000 years,” says Peter Honeywell, Executive Director of the Council for the Arts in Ottawa.

Please show your support by folding a paper crane (an instructional video is shown below) and sending it to your city councillor. We would also love it if you would take a picture of your paper crane and add it to the Cranes for Culture website’s Wall of Cranes. If you don’t have time to fold a crane, please consider signing the online petition or writing a letter to your city councillor.

Supporters of the campaign:
Ottawa Festivals
Council for the Arts in Ottawa
Arts Ottawa East
The Council of Heritage Organizations in Ottawa

Lancement du site Web Grues pour la culture

Le lundi 24 novembre 2008 – Les organisateurs de la « Campagne des 1000 grues pour les arts et la culture » sont heureux de vous annoncer le lancement du site Web Grues pour la culture (www.cranesforculture.ca).

La « Campagne des 1000 grues pour les arts et la culture » vise la restauration de tout le financement des arts, de la culture et du patrimoine dans le budget 2009 de la Ville d’Ottawa.

Les grues origami (appelées « Arts » et « Culture ») ont été adoptées comme symboles de notre campagne, parce que, tout comme leurs « cousines » dans la vraie vie, ces beaux oiseaux ne peuvent survivre quand on leur retire l’environnement qui les soutient (c’est-à-dire le financement des arts et de la culture).

Nous demandons aux gens de montrer leur appui en envoyant une grue à leur conseiller municipal. Une tradition veut que la confection de 1000 grues en papier représente une forme d’espoir en période de difficultés.

La grue est aussi un symbole de longévité; selon la légende, elle pourrait vivre 1000 ans. « Le soutien aux arts doit se manifester non seulement cette année, mais pendant les 1000 prochaines », affirme le directeur général du Conseil des arts d’Ottawa, Peter Honeywell.

En appui à la campagne :
Festivals d’Ottawa
Équipe du Conseil des arts d’Ottawa
Arts Ottawa Est
Le Conseil des organismes du patrimoine d’Ottawa