Re: CRD arts service wants District to join, March 10
If an arts group, a theatre company or a dance troupe serves a need and gains a following, that body can attract media attention, sell tickets to its events, request donations and hold fundraisers.
But if it can’t thrive, let alone survive, through the interest, participation and contributions of its audience, is the onus then on government to be “a player in the arts” and fund that organization?
And if we decide as a society that it is government’s job to subsidize the arts, who then decides what is “art” and therefore worthy of public largesse?
Any decision about whether to fund a group should be in the hands of an elected body, one that is answerable to its voters, not to the unelected and unaccountable Capital Regional District. The closer any project funding decision is to the people who pay the bills, the better.
I urge Central Saanich to continue its case-by-case donations to the organizations council considers worthy, and to avoid giving over any further taxing and funding control to the ever-expanding, ever-grasping CRD.
Dolores Bell, Central Saanich