I Sing The Song of Subsidy

Your tax dollars at work:

The Honourable Denis Lebel, Minister of Infrastructure, Communities and Intergovernmental Affairs and Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, announces that the Festival de la chanson de Tadoussac has been granted funding to promote its 31st edition, which will be taking place June 12 to 15, 2014, on external markets.

[...]

This support, granted in the form of a $97,095 non-repayable financial contribution for the festival’s 2013 and 2014 editions, has been awarded through Canada Economic Development’s Quebec Economic Development Program.

There being not a pothole left in Quebec.

On a completely irrelevant side note, the program's website is entirely in French. Isn't the federal government suppose to encourage bilingualism? Just a thought. Your humble correspondent hasn't the slightest problem with Francophones at a Francophone festival, held on the upper reaches of the north shore, speaking French and having a French website. C'est naturelle! Heck, I'm not even bothered at the immensely condescending manner of certain Francophones toward anyone so gauche as to be unable to speak their language fluently. 

I'm an old fashioned sort. It's their part of the country, their ancestors built it, let 'em speak French. The music played at the festival, from what I've been able to glean, is actual music. The culture being expressed is an actual culture, not the ersatz version that exists in much of North America. 

But why do I have to pay for it? It's not a question of quality or language, but of public policy. 

I'm not picking on French cultural festivals. The Portuguese can pay for their own cod fish. It is simply not the role of government to play patron to the arts. Free societies should never have an officially sanctioned, officially subsidized culture. It's bad for the dynamism of a free society and its bad for the artists themselves who become supplicants at the hands of the state. What kind of art gets funded by a government committee? The kind of art that appeases the bureaucrats.

But these artists aren't the only able bodied people on the dole:

Chris Alexander, Canada’s Citizenship and Immigration Minister, and Marie‑France Kenny, President of the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada (FCFA), are pleased to be celebrating the first National Francophone Immigration Week, which takes place from November 3-9.

Canada welcomed 3,685 Francophone minority immigrants in 2012, which is a 4% increase over 2011. “We have seen a consistent annual increase in the number of Francophone minority immigrants since 2006 and we will continue to promote initiatives to strengthen Canada’s Francophonie,” said Alexander. “This is an opportunity for Francophones across the country to come together and celebrate their unique culture—a culture that continues to flourish and to define Canada’s national identity.”

A price isn't provide for all this celebration, but I'm sure the check just got delayed at the printers. An entire week has been declared to celebrate the arrival of 3,685 people. Hundreds of thousands of Portuguese immigrants arrived in this country and all they got was a grouchy "Move Along Wop" from the Britishers running Canada at the time. They couldn't even be bothered coming up with an ethnic slur to differentiate us from the Italians. Our feelings were not unduly hurt. People who arrive in a country to work are not especially interested in the touchy-feely stuff. 

Now if you're the Conservative Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, why are you wasting your time and the taxpayers money on the first ever National Francophone Immigration Week? It can't be pandering for votes since no more than a dozen of these New Canadians are potential Tories. There are no vested interests as this is the first such event. So why?

My thinking runs along these lines: Placating minorities, at least the noisier groups, is such a reflex of the bureaucratic class in modern Canada that this stuff comes naturally. Oh, look, it's a minority we haven't subsidized yet! Quickly somebody declare a meaningless event and cut some checks to the "leaders" of this community. The Minister is a political appointee, often a catspaw of the Deputy Minister who actually runs the department. More programs mean more bureaucratic empire building. That means more power for those running the department.

And who's the minister to say no? You wouldn't want to needlessly offend some obscure group.

They might start picketing or something.

This is how Leviathan grows. One tiny subsidy, one small meaningless event at a time.  

Comments

[John Chittick]

Taxpayer subsidized art often boils down to Joe Six-pack (who prefers and pays for his own Country music) subsidizing those who own Tuxedos and catch limos to the Opera. But mostly it enshrines extra market employment for bureaucrats, undeserving artists, and rent seekers. This being a voting constituency one wouldn't normally associate with a conservative government, perhaps help explains why Canada is currently governed by conservative progressives.