For the second year in a row, the committee called on the province to return arts funding to 2008/09 levels. It also recommended that eligibility criteria for community gaming grants be revisited, and that the government reinstate gaming grants for three years to provide stability.

The theatre will be approaching the District of North Vancouver for the same amount.

In his written report to city council, Ian Forsyth, director of The Arts Office, said Presentation House was facing major cuts to the upcoming season, and might even have to close.

“In 2009, the theatre lost its annual gaming grant of $38,000,” Forsyth wrote. “The province’s cuts were sudden and the theatre had little chance to adjust its budget or eliminate production costs in an effort to accommodate this shortfall in grants revenue.”

“The province can make it very difficult for us to proceed,” COPE councillor Ellen Woodsworth said. “They still haven’t funded the 14 sites that we’ve set aside, and they had promised to be working on all of those…and they said none of the three applicants to run the social and market housing at the Olympic Village were proposals they could accept. So they have a lot of ways in which they can make our lives very difficult on issues that are extremely important to the city.”

“There are huge pressures on city council and on the city of Vancouver to get this thing signed, sealed and delivered so that Edgewater Casinos can break ground and get their mega-casino built in three years,” Susan Marsden, president of the British Columbia Association for Charitable Gaming, told reporters on Thursday outside City Hall.

“And we’re saying to the city of Vancouver that we want the timetable for this whole process to be governed by the interests of the people of British Columbia and the interests of Vancouverites – not by the timetable of a casino.”

Arts groups say the province has failed to live up to a 1999 agreement that 33 per cent of gambling revenues would go to charitable groups, and that charitable grants now account for only 10 per cent.

Amir Ali Alibhai, executive director of the Greater Vancouver Alliance for Arts and Culture, said Victoria expanded gambling on the understanding that 33 per cent of profits would be plowed back into important social and community services. With the recent cuts to gambling grants to arts and community groups, that figure has been slashed to about 10 per cent.

Alibhai is calling for Premier Gordon Campbell’s provincial government to increase funding to at least 20 per cent of all gambling revenues.

Organizers will also be calling on politicians to make funds for non-profits a condition for zoning changes that would be required for the construction of a proposed new Vegas-style casino next to BC Place.

Arts groups say the provincial government has failed to keep promises that it would steer 33 per cent of gambling profits to community projects and instead has slashed that allotment to 10 per cent.

The groups are expected to make their pitch Friday at the B.C. Association for Charitable Gaming Symposium at River Rock Casino in Richmond.

The Comox Archives and Museum Society gets $5,000, the Sid Williams Theatre Society gets $2,000 and the Comox Valley Pipe Band Society receives $1,800.

The money comes from a total of $662,740 in community gaming grants supporting youth arts and culture, fairs, festivals and museums on Vancouver Island.

More than 175 organizations across B.C. will receive grants to foster talent and support events that celebrate local traditions and customs, Rich Coleman, minister of housing and social development, announced this week.

“The two main things I would like you to consider are the restoration of all Gaming monies to the non-profit sector, without any strings attached, and a tripling of the province’s investment in the cultural sector,” Bill Horne states in his submission to the legislature’s select standing committee on finance and government services.

Horne is a vice president of CARFAC B.C., a visual artists’ advocacy group.

The Vancouver-born artist’s submission includes portraits that he created of people in various trades and occupations who support the arts.

Laura McGregor, Terrace Art Gallery coordinator, said the association has raised $8,000 through its membership drive, recent art auction, donations and membership sales; however, $18,000 is what’s needed to pay for operating costs that cover the coordinator’s salary. The money was lost when BC Gaming Grants were cut earlier this year.

To make up the difference, the association asked city council for $10,000 from its budget at the Sept. 13 council meeting. The association would like to receive the needed money by year end, she said.

The B.C. Liberals have halted the distribution of all gaming money going to arts groups that don’t focus directly on youth. But there was a small window of optimism about a remaining category called Fairs, Festivals and Museums.

No more. New eligibility criteria from the Ministry of Housing and Social Development says the only “festivals” allowed to access the gaming funding are “regional or local community heritage celebrations, fall fairs, rural fairs and cowboy days”.

Canada’s arts funding model is closer to Europe’s than the United States’, relying on heavy government funding instead of private donors. In part, that’s because Canada doesn’t allow the generous tax credits available to U.S. donors. Goosen has been in arts management since 1975 and has worked with governments of all stripes. “It’s a sad day,” she says.

After losing $100,000 in B.C. Lottery Corporation money earlier this year — a big chunk of her $1 million-plus budget — Goosen got walloped with a reduction in funding from the B.C. Arts Council, from $70,000 to $17,500. That was after she had committed to the choir’s next season, printed brochures, and set everything up assuming funding would be relatively stable.

The loss of a 2011 provincial gaming grant means the 16-year-old music festival at Ship Point might not continue next year and beyond, said Darryl Mar, executive producer of the Victoria Jazz Society.

The event attracts 15,000 people annually. This year’s Blues Bash — showcasing Coco Montoya and James Cotton on Sept. 4 and 5 — is not affected.

Rules introduced in March for gaming grants — with a new emphasis on youth involvement — mean most B.C. arts organizations are excluded. Adult groups are no longer eligible.

The Victoria Jazz Society, which stages the Blues Bash and JazzFest International, has annually received a $39,500 gaming grant for all its programming. The new rules make the society ineligible in 2011, Mar said.

Way back when we learned that the BC Liberal government was planning to cut arts funding in B.C. by up to 92 percent (they settled for around 80 percent) all kinds of weird things were going on.

Among them, Gaming was supposed to be administrating the B.C. Arts Council awards; multiyear Direct Access commitments were, then weren’t, then were, now aren’t, being honoured; Direct Access funds and Bingo grants were amalgamated into Community Gaming Grants; and money was being transferred around between fiscal years and programs in an elaborate shell game to make it look as though the funding was still there. It was confusing, and gave the impression that nobody really knew what was going on.

Recent developments suggest that somebody in government knew exactly what was going on and is now preparing to hijack $10 million of what little funding remains.

During the sudden (as in zero notice to organizations affected) restructuring of provincial arts funding the Direct Access Gaming program was annihilated, but a very small amount was eventually restored, earmarked for “youth programs, and fairs, festivals and museums”. Fairs? Since when did arts funding include “fairs”? A prevailing paranoia lingered in the aftermath of the laceration of hundreds of small organizations.

“Fairs and festivals that do not reflect the community, regional or cultural characteristics of a community are ineligible for a grant. Your programs do not appear to fit within these criteria,” the June 17 unsigned letter states.

“To say that [the Fringe] has no relevance to my community is hurtful and just wrong,” Mr. Case said, “and indicates that this money is being distributed by people who are not even connected remotely to the work that’s being done in our communities.”

The Intrepid Theatre Society has been producing the popular Victoria festival for 23 years.

Intrepid’s general manager, Ian Case, told the Straight that his organization applied for $42,500 in gaming funds.

In a June 17 e-mail to Case, the branch declared that funding is available to programs that “enhance performing arts, media arts, or visual arts, literature, heritage or culture for youth 18 years and under“.