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At Issue
Chatham-Kent\'s \"Arts\" Industry Is Vital to the Local Economy
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
It was a great show. Dick sang Christmas songs, warming up the crowd with favourites of the season. John chimed in with selected verse and finished the second set with a great Christmas story dedicated to the late Sam Kinsman. Having known former Wallaceburg newsman Sam, I found the story quite moving.
It was a sold out house. I don't think they could have fit in anybody else. I had a great time, between keeping my young twin daughters filled up with cookies and me filled up with various pastries. Admission was $10, a steal for such a great evening.
I'm sure some of you might say how does Phil get to go having so many other things to do. Hasn't he got other more practical uses for his money? If not that, where does he find the time to go to such artistic diversions?
Simply put, it was therapy for me, but the $10 was a far cry from what other Canadians are spending to fill up their leisure hours. Last week Statistics Canada chimed in with what people are doing with their money. According to Statistics Canada Canadians spend $80 dollars per capita on live performing arts last year. In other words, I can listen to John and Dick seven more times before I hit average Canadians live performance spending. When's the next concert?
I can't wait, but in the meantime I'll surely spend money on things, which aren't as important for my soul. Statistics Canada also chimed in with some more figures about how Canadians are spending their money. The following points are only a few from the Statistics Canada Survey of Household Spending.
-The one-fifth of Canadian households with the lowest income spent about $20,200 in 2003. Of this, almost 53% went to food, shelter and clothing. Personal income taxes claimed 3% of their budget.
-In contrast, the group of households with the highest income spent an average of $123,400 in 2003. They allocated about 28% of their budgets to food, shelter and clothing, while 29% went to personal income taxes.
-The popularity of DVD players skyrocketed in 2003, with more than half of all Canadian households now reporting them, up sharply from 36% in 2002.
-More than 54% of households reported having at least one cell phone, up slightly from 52% in 2002. Households spent an average of $290 on cellular services, up 12% from 2002, and more than 40% higher than in 2001. Cell phones now account for nearly $3 of every $10 spent on all telephone services.
-Overall, households spent $61,150 on average in 2003, a 1.8% increase >from the previous year. Personal taxes accounted for an estimated 20% of the average household budget, shelter 19%, transportation 14% and food 11%, all about the same as in 2002.
-Nearly 6 out of every 10 households reported having an Internet connection, up slightly from the 54% reported in 2002. A home Internet connection was reported by 59% of urban households and by 47% of rural households. Average spending on Internet services rose to $170, up 8% from 2002.
-The top three annual household expenditures on recreational services were: rental of cable and satellite services ($460); package travel tours ($350); and sports and recreational facility memberships and user fees ($310).
-Households spent much more on live performing arts ($80) than on live sports events ($50). But both were smaller than the average of $110 that households spent on going out to movies. Rental of videos and DVDs averaged about $90 per household.
Source: Statistics Canada, "The Daily"
It is quite a list surely some of it trivial to me. I don't have a DVD player thus I don't rent DVD's or videos, subtract at least $90. I don't have a sports or recreational membership, subtract another $310. I'm feeling so rich now; I'm looking for another concert date.
Maybe other people are too. I dunno. Talking to John last week, he was a bit surprised by the turnout in Ridgetown. But maybe there is a hunger for the arts, which is not being satisfied here in Chatham-Kent. Maybe Statistic Canada latest household spending survey bears that out.
There are other examples. The Glass Onion Folk club packs them in on many occasions in Wallaceburg. Surely folk involved with the Capital theatre project hope to tap into this potential too. Simply put, "the arts" as an industry cannot be ignored. Even in Chatham-Kent we can't afford to let those dollars go elsewhere.
Philip Shaw, farms 830 acres near Dresden, Ontario. He holds a Masters of Agricultural Economics and Business Degree from the University of Guelph and is a well-known commentator on agricultural issues in print, on radio and over satellite in Canada and the United States. In the Chatham-Kent Times, Phil will use his frank and forthright writing style to address political and economic issues from the local to the international stage. He is a keen observer of political life at all levels, reads widely and has travelled the world to gather fodder for his column. See what's At Issue this week.
