The Arts Under Doug Ford

On June 7, 2018, it happened exactly the way we always knew it would. Not only had we been told that a PC-majority government in Ontario was almost certain according to the polls, we also knew that any election after 2016 inevitably had to have the worst possible result. I was sitting on a friend’s back deck with six or seven others, almost all of them people I’d met at Toronto readings and book launches or through other literary-minded people. We were watching a laptop screen as the ridings filled in orange, blue, and now and then red. When the election was called, someone shouted, “Goodbye OAC funding!” Cuts to arts funding are just part of the package of a Conservative government. Back in 2008, Stephen Harper’s government cut $45 million in arts funding, saying, "I think when ordinary working people come home, turn on the TV and see a gala of a bunch of people at, you know, a rich gala all subsidized by taxpayers claiming their subsidies aren't high enough, when they know those subsidies have actually gone up—I'm not sure that's something that resonates with ordinary people." It's hard to argue with a disdain for galas of any type, but as then-NDP-leader Jack Layton rightly pointed out, most artists earn far less than the “ordinary people” Harper appealed to. Against expectations, as the Mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford increased funding to the Toronto Arts Council in 2013, directing proceeds from a billboard tax to increase funding by $11.5 million in three years. But it didn’t always look like the TAC would escape Ford’s attempts to find “efficiencies” in what was already a lean municipal budget. In 2011, CBC reported that city manager Joe Pennachetti had recommended cutting $6 million in arts grants to major organizations like the Toronto Symphony, TIFF, and the National Ballet. There was also that time when Rob Ford tried to cut $19 million out of the Toronto Public Library’s budget, earning the ire of Margaret Atwood’s Twitter account. By January 2012, city council voted to undo those cuts (and many others), but the Fords themselves had not been shy about their lack of respect for public services or the arts. Now that Doug Ford is at the head of a PC government in Queen’s Park, will the OAC be on the chopping block? Toronto’s more democratic city council uses a weak mayor system, where the mayor wields some influence such as selecting council committees but ultimately only has one vote out of 44 (now 47). There are no political parties in Toronto’s municipal politics, though left, right, and centrist blocks form ad hoc coalitions depending on the mayor and the issue at hand. But in a majority provincial parliament, there’s hardly any chance of a well-whipped PC caucus turning against their leader over budget cuts that appeal to their base. With a promise to find $6 billion of “efficiencies” without firing a single bureaucrat, it may be a miracle if the $60 million in provincial funding to the OAC survives. I would expect water to start flowing backward if Ford let Wynne’s planned increase in funding happen.

The barrier to entry to Toronto is already impossibly high for the next generation of writers.

Cuts to arts funding will hurt deeply. It means less support for authors requesting grants to write their books, it means less support to magazines and book publishers, and in many cases, it doesn’t just mean reduced support, but many organizations getting nothing at all. Expect to see more crises and fundraising drives in your timeline, and ultimately, publishers and magazines scaling back their activities or simply folding. The results will be highly visible, but I’m even more worried about what else a Doug Ford government will (and won’t) do. Art doesn’t depend on grants (though it helps). Art thrives where living is cheap, and people have time to make it. The longer Doug Ford stays in power, the more I fear we’ll see living expenses rise out of control and labour rights erode in Ontario. During the election, Ford had to promise that he would not take away rent control, because of previous statements he’d made on the subject of housing supply. As it is, the PC website promise is to maintain the status quo, which isn’t nearly enough. Despite the previous Liberal government’s extension of rent control to units built after 1991, Ontario still doesn’t have rent control between tenancies, which is why you see monthly rents on new leases so much higher than Toronto’s city-wide average. Every time you move, you risk signing up for hundreds more a month for at least the rest of your life. The status quo on rent control won’t stop Toronto’s unaffordability; it will only make it livable until your landlord finds a way to kick you out. That’s only for the people who live here already. The barrier to entry to Toronto is already impossibly high for the next generation of writers. It’s not just downtown that’s affected, either, though rents are certainly higher. We know one thing: the institutions, jobs, and connections in Ontario’s arts world aren’t going to move out of Toronto. Participation in that arts world will become even more starkly unfair as living in Toronto becomes even more of a privilege. The biggest threat to the arts in Toronto isn’t cuts to arts funding; it’s maintaining the status quo (or stripping away the protections already in place) when it comes to standard of living issues. The arts in Toronto are in for a rough time, one way or another, but any cuts to the OAC will mostly hurt the publishers, magazines, and reading series that already exist. Creativity is an abundant resource, but it can’t survive in all conditions. Maintaining the status quo in Toronto will make it harder for new people and new ideas to replace the organizations that won’t make it through the lean years ahead.