Why do some jurisdictions contribute to the Arts and Culture Support Service and others don’t?

    CRD Arts and Culture is a sub-regional service, meaning that each jurisdiction (municipality or electoral area) decides if they want to participate.  We have invited  jurisdictions to join this service through their elected representatives. Since 2001 we have grown from six to nine participating jurisdictions. 

    Currently participating are Esquimalt, Highlands, Metchosin, Oak Bay, Saanich, Sooke, Southern Gulf Islands Electoral Area, Victoria, and View Royal. Seven have chosen not to participate: Central Saanich, Colwood, Juan de Fuca electoral area, Langford, North Saanich, Salt Spring Island Electoral Area, and Sidney.

    Only participating jurisdictions are eligible to receive grant funding for non-profit organizations and arts activities in their area from this service.

    Why don't you fund individual artists?

    CRD is limited to funding not-for-profit organizations based on the Local Government Act.

    However, CRD does continue to distribute funding through Equity Grants. This grant program allows a project lead or collective from an equity-seeking community to partner with a sponsor society to apply. This program is intended to reduce barriers for groups who have faced significant collective barriers to accessing funding.

    We need infrastructure funding for arts facilities. Why aren't we talking about that?

    This community engagement focuses on gathering community feedback to inform a new strategic plan for the Arts and Culture Support Service, which is overseen by the CRD Arts Commission. The mandate of this granting service is supporting arts activities in the region. 

    Separate services for the Royal Theatre and McPherson Playhouse support those performing arts facilities. 

    The new CRD Corporate Plan (2023-26) includes a goal to "scale up regional support for performing arts facilities within the region (Goal 10b-2 - PDF). This goal will be supported by other committees and plans, including Select Committees of the CRD Board as well as the Royal & McPherson Theatres Services Advisory Committee.