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Cover of Our Way Forward: Manitoba’s Culture Policy and Action Plan

Manitoba’s Culture Policy and Action Plan Released

March 12, 2019

The Government of Manitoba today released Our Way Forward – Manitoba’s Culture Policy and Action Plan, outlining its priorities for the cultural sector, including an action item to “review the public library funding model and realign provincial funding to develop a strong and sustainable public library sector.”

The document outlines the government’s vision, guiding principles, and action plan for the cultural sector:

Our Way Forward – Manitoba’s Culture Policy and Action Plan

March 2019

Vision

Our vision is to build a province where all Manitobans have rich opportunities to express ourselves creatively, explore and understand our history, celebrate together in communities and access a wide array of powerful arts and cultural experiences. To be a province where culture is valued, recognized and supported for its contribution to individual, social and economic vitality

Guiding Principles

The following principles will help guide our actions

  • Contribution to the economy
  • Creativity
  • Diversity and access to culture
  • Indigenous culture
  • Partnership
  • Stewardship and accountability

Action Plan

Priority Area 1 – Fostering economic development

Strategic actions include:

  • Modernize and streamline support for cultural labour force development, ensuring that programs are responsive to industry needs and contribute to skills development and sustainable employment.
  • Review the Film and Video Tax Credit, Book Publishing Tax Credit, Cultural Industries Printing Tax Credit, and the Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit, to ensure that they continue to align with Manitoba’s economic goals.
  • Ensure that Manitoba’s cultural policy priorities are clearly articulated and communicated at federal regulatory, legislative and policy consultations related to culture.

Priority Area 2 – Understanding and promoting the value of culture and creativity

Strategic actions include:

  • Celebrate culture and disseminate information on Manitoba’s cultural and creative achievements.
  • Maintain, support, and disseminate information on cultural economic impacts and employment data through Statistics Canada’s Culture Satellite Account.
  • Monitor research and industry intelligence on the social value and contributions of culture and maintain up to date information on matters of public policy affecting culture.

Priority Area 3 – Ensuring diversity, inclusion and accessibility

Strategic actions include:

  • Work with funding agencies and grant program managers to support diversity, inclusion and accessibility in all processes related to public funding of culture.
  • Work with Indigenous people, including First Nations, Inuit and Métis, to foster reconciliation, preserve and promote Indigenous history, traditions, languages and culture, and support Indigenous artists and cultural stakeholders
  • Respect, promote and support Francophone culture in Manitoba, to ensure a vibrant and visible French cultural milieu.
  • Work with ethnocultural stakeholders to create awareness of the social, civic and economic benefits of multiculturalism, and support strategies to address racism, systemic discrimination, marginalization and social exclusion.
  • Work with cultural organizations to assist them with understanding and meeting the requirements of the Accessibility for Manitobans Act (2013).
  • Ensure equitable opportunities to engage in cultural activities across all regions of the province, including urban, rural and northern.

Priority Area 4 – Supporting culture in communities and everyday life

Strategic actions include:

  • Encourage municipalities to integrate culture into their decision-making and planning processes, and to work with their local cultural organizations to maximize value from a thriving local cultural scene.
  • Incentivize private sector support for museums and archives by creating a heritage trust program that will increase endowments for museums and archives.
  • Support Manitobans efforts to identify, protect and celebrate their documentary heritage.
  • Review and modernize programs that support community arts and events, libraries, heritage and archives to improve the resiliency and sustainability of community-based cultural organizations.
  • Review the public library funding model and realign provincial funding to develop a strong and sustainable public library sector.
  • Support arts education, heritage education and cultural literacy through school-based partnerships, community cultural organizations, libraries and other community cultural hubs.
  • Support programs and initiatives that seek to increase broadband connectivity to First Nations, rural and northern Manitoba communities.

Priority Area 5 – Modernizing cultural funding programs

Strategic actions include:

  • Undertake a regulatory requirements review that will reduce red tape and lower the cost of complying with funding programs and regulations for cultural stakeholders.
  • Support a government-wide review of grants to community-based, non-government organizations, to develop
    recommendations for streamlining grants, simplifying application processes, and strategically managing grant-related expenditures across government.
  • Develop a government e-portal for grants and contributions ensuring that funding opportunities are well known and accessible to all Manitobans and prioritize the move to online grants administration.

Documents:

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