OTTAWA — The federal government is injecting $504 million over five years in various renamed arts and cultural programs, including giving $25 million per year to the Canada Council for the Arts. The money will allow the Canada Council to maintain its current $181 million yearly budget.

At the Vancouver Arts Summit, Heritage Minister James Moore also announced the renewal until 2014/15 of the Canada Cultural Investment Fund (formerly Canadian Arts and Heritage Sustainability), the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund (formerly the Cultural Spaces Canada Program), and the provisionally named Canada Arts Presentation Fund (formerly the Arts Presentation Canada Program).

‘What’s this going to mean for arts and culture? When the government decides to wrestle these deficits under control and make decisions in the future, what’s going to get touched? The recession will not touch our government’s record funding for arts and culture,’ said Moore.

The Canadian Cultural Investment Fund has been renewed at $33.8 million per year and the Canada Arts Preservation Fund will continue to receive $18 million annually, while the Spaces program got an additional $60 million over two years. In their budget, the Conservatives have already committed $30 million annually to Spaces this year and next.

The announcement also included the extension of the Canada Arts Training Fund’s current appropriation of $24.1 million a year until 2014/15. Moore announced this program’s budget would increase 41% from $17.1 million in March in Banff.

All four programs were due to expire in 2010.

‘By renewing our investment in these programs now, our government is ensuring that the arts sector will benefit from increased stability over the long term and will be well positioned for the challenges of the future,’ Moore stated.

The arts increases come after the ruling Conservatives last summer cut a series of programs affecting film and TV, including the $9 million Trade Routes program that helps creators export products.

Moore made little mention of the film and TV industries in his remarks, however. The minister said he has ‘been trying to look at the whole approach that our government has taken to arts and culture and the different funding mechanisms that we have when it comes to publishing, when it comes to periodicals, when it comes to new media, when it comes to television, when it comes to online content and other things.’

He mentioned the Canada Media Fund, due to launch in April, and stressed the value of the arts to both the cultural and economic lives of Canadians.

‘In fact, all taken together the arts and culture sectors are responsible for more than 650,000 jobs in this country, $46 billion to the economy,’ added the minister.

While the names have changed, the programs’ objectives remain the same. The investment fund aims to strengthen organizations and build capacity for the arts, the training program supports the skills development of Canadian creators and future cultural leaders, the spaces program improves theaters and other venues where artists perform, and the preservation program funds the preservation of the arts.