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<P><U><B>The Mandate</B></U></P>
<P>The Canada Council for the Arts was established by legislation (the Canada Council Act) in 1957 to foster and promote the study, enjoyment and production of works in the arts. According to the Act, the Council may</P>
<P>(a) assist, cooperate with and enlist the aid of organizations the objects of which are similar to any of the objects of the Council;</P>
<P>(b) provide, through appropriate organizations or otherwise, for grants, scholarships or loans to persons in Canada for study or research in the arts in Canada or elsewhere or to persons in other countries for study or research in the arts in Canada;</P>
<P>(c) make awards to persons in Canada for outstanding accomplishment in the arts;</P>
<P>(d) sponsor exhibitions, performances and publications of works in the arts;</P>
<P>(e) exchange with other countries or organizations or persons therein knowledge and information respecting the arts; and</P>
<P>(f) arrange for representation and interpretation of Canadian arts in other countries.</P>
<P>The Canada Council for the Arts serves professional arts, community arts projects undertaken by professionals, music, theatre, dance, visual arts, crafts, art museums and galleries, professional development of artists and/or cultural workers, writing, book publishing, magazine publishing, translation, media arts, film, video, new media, interdisciplinary arts practices, and arts education.</P>
<P>The Council</P>
<UL>
<LI>provides financial support to arts/cultural organizations
<LI>provides financial support to individuals in the arts/culture
<LI>advises the national government on matters related to the arts/culture
<LI>conducts research in the arts/culture
<LI>promotes public understanding and appreciation of the arts/culture
<LI>awards prizes/honours in the arts/culture
<LI>administers a public lending right program for books or printed materials
<LI>publishes books and/or magazines (quarterly advocacy newsletter)
<LI>administers some international programs,
<LI>carries out other functions, such as administering the Killam program of scholarly awards and prizes. </LI></UL>
<P>The Canada Council Act provides that the Governor in Council may assign to the Council such functions and duties in relation to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as the Governor in Council considers desirable. The Canadian Commission for UNESCO operates under the Council's aegis.</P>
<P><U><B>The Governing Body</B></U></P>
<P>The governing body of the Canada Council, the Board, consists of 11 members who are appointed by the government. The Board meets at least four times a year. It establishes priorities and is responsible for all policy and financial decisions as well as other matters, which are implemented by a staff headed by the Director.</P>
<P>The Chair and Vice-Chair of the Council are appointed for terms not exceeding five years each, which are fixed by the Governor in Council. Other members of Council are appointed for a term of three years. A person who has served two consecutive terms as Chair or as Vice-Chair is not, during the twelve months following the completion of the second term, eligible to be re-appointed to the Council in the same capacity.</P>
<P><U><B>The Staff</B></U></P>
<P>The Council appoints the employees and the technical and professional advisers necessary for the proper conduct of its activities.</P>
<P>The&nbsp;182 staff members are not government employees. Like the board members, the chief executive officer is appointed by the Governor in Council.</P>
<P>The staff who have direct program responsibilities "come from the field". The Canada Council for the Arts and its staff rely heavily on the advice of artists and arts professionals from all parts of Canada, who are consulted both individually and collectively. The Council also works in close co-operation with arts councils and departments at all levels of government in Canada. The Council does not have regional offices.</P>
<P><U><B>Relationship with Government</B></U></P>
<P>The Canada Council for the Arts was created as a national arm's-length agency by an Act of Parliament. The organization is funded by and reports to Parliament through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. Canadian Heritage is the department with which the Council has the closest relationship.</P>
<P>The Council must file an annual report to Parliament within sixty days of the end of the financial year. The Council is also subject to review by the Auditor General of Canada, who audits its accounts annually, and can be called before a Parliamentary Committee to answer questions about planning and other aspects of its operations.</P>
<P>The Council's independence from government is insured by the arm's length principle and the provisions of the Financial Administration Act, which exempts the Council and similar bodies from directive powers of the government.</P>
<P>The Government</P>
<UL>
<LI>appoints the members of the governing body
<LI>appoints the chief executive officer </LI></UL>
<P>The Council</P>
<UL>
<LI>is required to file an annual report with Parliament (the financial account is audited by the Auditor General of Canada)
<LI>determines its own policies
<LI>determines its own current priorities
<LI>establishes its own strategic plan
<LI>selects its staff members
<LI>determines the allocation of the budget to various programs and activities
<LI>establishes its various funding programs
<LI>determines who will receive its financial support </LI></UL>
<P>The allocation of the Council's budget to various programs and activities is determined by the Council. The government may make supplemental funding available for specific activities within the envelope of Council activities.</P>
<P>The Council cooperates with other arts funding bodies at the provincial and municipal levels. These bodies are not part of the Council.</P>
<P><U><B>Budget and Revenue Sources</B></U></P>
<P>An annual grant from Parliament is the Canada Council for the Arts' main source of funds, supplemented by income from an Endowment Fund, which was established by Parliament in 1957. The Council can receive and has over the years received a number of private donations and bequests, the income from which is devoted to the purposes established by the deeds of the gift.</P>
<P>The organization's total budget in the current year is&nbsp;US$117,289,741. &nbsp;90% is contributed by the national government and 10% comes from interest on investments and endowments. The Council receives annual funding from the government's general revenues. Over the last five years, funding from government has increased, while funding from non-government sources has remained at the same level.</P>
<P><U><B>Programs of Financial Support for the Arts/Cultural Community</B></U></P>
<P>The Canada Council provides financial support to the professional activities of organizations and individuals. A professional artist is defined as someone who has specialized training in the field (not necessarily in academic institutions), who is recognised as such by her or his peers (artists working in the same artistic tradition) and who has a history of public presentation or publication.</P>
<P>Canada Council for the Arts programs are accessible to Aboriginal artists and arts organizations, and to artists and arts organizations from the diverse cultural or regional communities of Canada.</P>
<P>Most of the financial support programs are organized by discipline or sector.</P>
<P>Council funds can be used for</P>
<UL>
<LI>creation
<LI>research and development
<LI>production, presentation and exhibition
<LI>publication
<LI>operations of an organization </LI></UL>
<P>Capital development, endowment funds, and purely amateur activities are not supported by the Council. The Council provides operating support on a multi-year basis to many arts organizations in order to foster greater financial stability within the arts community, help arts organizations plan for their future, and reduce administrative burdens on the organizations and the Council.</P>
<P><U><B>Assessment of Applications for Financial Support</B></U></P>
<P>The Canada Council for the Arts evaluates all applications on the basis of artistic merit and against the published criteria for each program. With only minor exceptions (e.g., small travel grants), all applications are reviewed by peer assessment committees.</P>
<P>The Council works from an ever expanding inventory of peers. Board members, staff and the arts community are asked to submit the names of potential peers on an ongoing basis.</P>
<P>Artistic merit or excellence is the main and most heavily weighted criterion upon which a committee of professional peers bases its recommendation to award a grant. The peer assessment committee carefully considers all the applications in a competition and makes grant recommendations or decisions about which applications are considered (by the consensus of the committee members) to have the greatest artistic merit in a national competitive context.</P>
<P>Peer assessment committee members are specialists in a particular field or fields and reflect a broad range of artistic practices. In addition to being peers of the applicants, the committee members are chosen to ensure fair representation of both the official languages of Canada, gender, regional and cultural diversity, and genres of expression and functions within the artistic discipline. New peer assessment committees of three to five members are selected for each competition. The names of peer assessment committee members are published in the Council's <I>Annual Report Supplement</I>.</P>
<P>A person may not serve as a peer assessor more than once in 24 months. There are a number of conflict of interest rules for the assessors. Prior to the committee meeting, in their written guidelines, the committee members receive the "Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form". All members must complete this form and submit it on the first day of the committee meeting. The form specifies conflicts of interest that exist or that may exist.</P>
<P><U><B>Unique or Special Features of the Organization</B></U></P>
<P>The Canada Council for the Arts administers the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, an arm's length consultative forum that advises the Canadian Government on its relations with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and co-ordinates UNESCO activities in Canada.</P>
<P>The Council also administers The Canada Council Art Bank, the largest collection of contemporary Canadian art with some 18,000 paintings, prints, photographs and sculptures by over 2500 artists. Works are available for rent by corporations, institutions, government departments and agencies.</P>
<P>The Public Lending Right Commission is another body operating under the administrative aegis of the Canada Council. Consisting of authors, librarians and publishers, the Commission was established in 1986 to administer a program of payments to Canadian authors for their eligible books catalogued in libraries across Canada.</P>
<P>Some of Canada's most prestigious prizes, the Governor General's awards, are funded and administered by the Council to honour Canadians who have made an extraordinary contribution to the lives of their fellow citizens through literature, visual arts and media arts.</P>
<P>Finally, the Council administers the Killam Program of research fellowships and memorial prizes. The awards support scholars engaged in research projects of outstanding merit in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, health sciences, engineering and interdisciplinary studies within these fields.</P>
<P><U><B>Greatest Current Challenge</B></U></P>
<P>The arts community of Canada has over the years grown in size and nature. The Council is responding to new demands in the culturally diverse communities of Canada and the Aboriginal arts community, as well as a growing demand for Canadian talent on the international stage.</P>
<P>Globalization presents a number of challenges to the cultivation and support of distinctive Canadian voices.</P>
<P>The challenge for the Canada Council is to keep pace with growth and change in Canada's arts community, strengthen the Council's role and its resource base accordingly, and continue to evolve in order to best serve the needs of an ever-changing arts community. </P>
<P><U><B>Greatest Current Strength</B></U></P>
<P>The Council has earned wide respect from the arts community, which is the greatest defender and promoter of the Canada Council for the Arts.</P>
<P>The autonomous "arm's-length" status of the agency is essential to its role in making artistic decisions free from outside pressures. Peer evaluation is vital to the artistic decision-making process of the Council.</P>
<P>In October 1997, Minister of Canadian Heritage Sheila Copps announced the government's commitment to increase the budget of the Council by $ 25 million for five years, beginning in 1997-98. The Council's appropriation was increased by another $ 10 million in fiscal year 2000-2001. In May 2001 the Federal Government announced a further $75 million increase over three years, beginning in 2001-2002.</P>
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