From: Bill Braden
Yellowknife
Dear Editor,
I believe it is a sacred duty of elected officials to encourage and enable healthy, respectful debate about issues that affect the public purse, and public values.
But as a parliamentarian, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs Minister Caroline Cochrane has fundamentally erred in slamming the door on debate about whether the NWT's valiant arts community deserves a share of the roughly $5 million generated by lotteries.
The act as it stands now allots all that money to "recreation" and gives jurisdiction to the NWT's five designated – and equally valiant – sports organizations to operate and distribute that money. Yet, the Act does not define just what recreation means, giving these organizations a monopoly on where the money goes.
"I respect them and I will honour the process that lets them define how we use this funding," Cochrane said at a legislature committee meeting Feb 8. In stating this, she says the only recourse the arts has is to plead poor to the sports organizations that already have a legislated mandate. Not fair I say.
This debate need not dissolve into a win-lose brawl between two very deserving communities. Neither has to defend their value to our society or record of achievement.
What the debate should centre on, is realizing the public purse is only so big, and striking a balance in how we share it. The playing field (pun intended) could be leveled by fundamentally reviewing all arts/sports funding provided by lottery and the GNWT, to ensure that the funding is being distributed equitably.
Minister Cochrane is quite correct in bringing forward an amendment to the Western Canada Lottery Act to save up to $1 million from being Hoovered up by the ravenous federal tax system. She also has a great opportunity to show that the broader issue, the one that has touched the public nerve, can be addressed by helping us talk about it – not muzzling us.