Section 2: The Evolution of Federal Cultural Support

Table of Contents

Section 1: Canadian Cultural Policy 101: An Overview of the Federal Role in the Cultural Ecosystem

Fundamental Values and Ideals

Section 2: The Evolution of Federal Cultural Support

Section 3: Developing and Sustaining Cultural Expression and Shelf Space

Benchmarking Cultural Policy
Strengthening the Sector
Partners

Section 4: On the Horizon

Section 5: All Resources

Section 2: The Evolution of Federal Cultural Support

The constitutional fundamentals have been further elaborated on by successive governments, with specific legislative guidelines designed to encourage and facilitate Canadian artistic and cultural development. Canadian federal policies have evolved over a span of almost a hundred and fifty years from the British North America Act to the current host of related legislative and regulatory measures.

A complete history of federal legislation and initiatives from 1849-2005 can be found in the Observatory’s Timeline of Federal Cultural Policy. Notable legislative pillars of Canadian cultural policy include: the 1924 Copyright Act and its subsequent amendments in 1988, 1989, 1993, 1994, 1997 and 1998, the 1939 National Film Act, the Historic Sites and Monuments Act of 1953, the Canada Council Act of 1957, the establishment of the Indian Art Centre in 1965, the National Arts Centre Act of 1966, Telefilm Canada Act of 1967, the Museums Act and the National Historic Sites Policy both in 1968, the National Museums Act of 1972, and the Library and Archives of Canada Act of 2004 which consolidated the Public Archives Act (1913) and the National Library Act (1953).

Federal responsibility for culture was established within the Department of the Secretary of State from 1963-1980 and included a Multiculturalism Directorate beginning in 1972. The Ministry of Communications assumed the management of the Department of State’s cultural components from 1980-1993. The current Department of Canadian Heritage was created in 1993. As the new federal department for cultural policy, it absorbed the cultural responsibilities of the Department of Communications and the Department of Multiculturalism and Citizenship that had been established in 1991 along with national parks, amateur sport, official languages, off-reserve Aboriginal programs and citizen participation. Secondary departments supporting culture include the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, the Department of Finance Canada, the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the Department of Human Resources and Social Development, Industry Canada, and the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. Although day-to-day federal cultural policy management has been incorporated into the portfolio of the Department of Canadian Heritage as well as cultural agencies and institutions, historically Canada’s approach to administering culture has embraced the “arm’s length” approach. This trend has continued and at present, many of the institutions created, such as the national museums, have been further removed from direct government intervention by becoming crown corporations or other agencies.

Collectively, these diverse pieces of legislation and the creation of federal departments and institutions, coupled with the cultural dimensions of our constitution, compose the conceptual and management framework of Canadian public policy. They are not mere pronouncements, but active, changing agents of growth and expression of the Canadian experience. They are jointly and separately clear manifestations of the will of successive Parliaments to endorse the role of the federal government in the fostering and sustenance of artistic and cultural expression in all of its varied manifestations.

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