Steve's Rant - Community Arts Council

In today's Tribune, there was an article on the CRD/City of WL Joint Town Hall Meeting.

Harry Jennings - President of the local Community Arts Council said this, in response to the article:

My name is Harry Jennings, and as President of the Williams Lake Community Arts Council, it is very pleasing to observe the vocal support for the growth of arts and culture in our community expressed at the CRD Community meeting in Williams Lake. These community-based and largely volunteer-supported activities bring life to our city and the surrounding areas, support our citizens in joining together for positive and creative activities, and demonstrate that people enjoy living and recreating here. One good example of this positive energy is the Arts and Culture Centre downtown, a home, albeit temporary, for our artists, potters, spinners and weavers, which has brought life to a block where the lights were out for over three years. Another great example is the Farmer's Market in Boitanio Park every Friday from spring unti fall, a member group of the Williams Lake Community Arts Council. As positive as all these activities may be, their continued visible existence is tenuous at best, with the loss of a few support dollars or a few key volunteers the difference between thriving and disappearing. The positive energy brought to our community by arts and culture requires care and feeding and visible municipal support to survive in these times, and to provide the foundation for growth to position the Cariboo-Chilcotin for a dramatic rebound when the recession finally ends, keeping the great people we have now, and attracting the dynamic citizens of the future. I look forward to working with the CRD and the City on developing a business plan for the Arts and Culture function and I welcome any further discussion and questions anytime, and I can be contacted at 305-2324.

Unfortunately, while I agree with Mr. Jennings on the outcome that an Arts and Culture Function may bring, skipping reasonable Public Consultation on a New Function, like the Central Cariboo Arts and Culture is, and not allowing the public to decide for themselves if they wish to pay for this type of Function is not acceptable and makes a mockery of the entire Regional District system which essentially says that if you want a new Function, you have to convince the ratepayers' in the area in which the New Function will cover (Regional/Sub-Regional or Local Area) and they will either approve/reject the request.

Not to engage the public on either approval for establishment of the Central Cariboo Arts and Culture Function and the development of the Service Delivery Plan of this Function would be the same as saying: Two wrongs make a right.

We all know that two wrongs do not make a right

The Central Cariboo Joint Committee needs to ensure that the public is engaged on the creation and execution of the Service Delivery Plan before 2010 so ratepayers' can see what they are paying for, as the budget for this Function goes up, from $20,000 in 2009 to either $100,000 or $200,000 (at Central Cariboo Joint Committee's discretion) in 2010 or 2011