Intermunicipal Comparative Framework: Phase One Pilot Report

Creative City Network of Canada, March 2006, Canada

Across Canada, local government plays a key role in their community's cultural development, which is increasingly seen as an integral part of broader municipal strategies to foster social and economic prosperity, vitality, and sustainability. In practice, there is a broad range and diversity of means in place to support cultural development. How, at this stage, can municipalities best move forward? With the Intermunicipal Comparative Framework Project, the kind of ground-level information and comprehensive knowledge base required to compare practices and approaches is now close at hand. TheIntermunicipal Comparative Framework is a structure, a framework around which to document and understand the infrastructure, scope, and nature of local government involvement and investment in Canadian cultural development, and to facilitate intermunicipal comparisons. The topics addressed are wide-ranging, and include arts, heritage, facilities, civic art collections, public art, funding, non-monetary support, and more. Phase One is about designing the framework for storing and retrieving this multi-faceted body of information. The Phase One Pilot Report summarizes, in tables and commentary, what was learned about municipal involvement in arts, heritage, and culture in 30 municipalities across Canada through a survey initially distributed in 2003. The long-term goal of the three-part Intermunicipal Comparative Framework is to have an accessible source of baseline information about municipalities across Canada. Phase Two, under development in 2006-2007, will record the monetary value of direct and indirect municipal support for cultural development, while Phase Three will explore selected topic areas in more detail. The full report is available HERE.

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