Children's Arts Activity Tax Credits in Canada: What You Need To Know

If you're a resident of Canada, it's important at this time of year to know that there are several available tax credits available to claim if your children are enrolled in music lessons.

First of all, the Line 370 Children's Arts Amount. From the CRA website:

You can claim to a maximum of $500 per child the fees paid in 2011 relating to the cost of registration or membership of your or your spouse's or common-law partner's child in a prescribed program of artistic, cultural, recreational, or developmental activity.

You can find out more from this video:




If you live in Ontario, music lessons are one of the eligible activities that can also be submitted for a the 2011 Ontario tax credit in addition to the separate federal arts amount. Here's how it works:

If you have a child enrolled in activities, such as painting classes, soccer, hockey or music lessons, you can claim up to $509 in eligible expenses and get up to $50.90 back for each child under 16 for 2011. You can receive up to $101.80 back for a child with a disability who is under 18. These amounts will be adjusted for inflation each subsequent year.

Its only a measly $50.90, but every dollar counts at this miserable time of the year.

Best of luck preparing your taxes as we get into the crunch time before the April 30 deadline. If you know of any provincial arts credits for provinces other than Ontario, please leave a comment w/links.

Celebrating Canadian Composers: The Canadian Music Centre's 50th Anniversary

The Canadian Music Centre is 50 years old this year and will be celebrating the event in style at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa on November 9. Here is the complete CMC press release:

October 22, 2009, TORONTO, ON – The Canadian Music Centre is proud to celebrate its 50th Anniversary this year. In honour of this milestone year, the National Arts Centre and its Orchestra are partnering with the CMC to present a special all Canadian concert and birthday celebration on Monday, November 9th 2009 in the NAC’s Southam Hall.

In appreciation of this historic event, the CMC is recognizing 50 outstanding Canadian performers and conductors who have played exceptional roles in shaping the Canadian music scene and raising the profile of Canadian music. The CMC will honour these individuals, who will come from all across Canada to attend the special 50th Anniversary concert and celebration, at the NAC in Ottawa.

Congratulations to the following CMC Ambassadors:

Lydia Adams – Robert Aitken – Colleen Athparia – Karin Aurell – Mario Bernardi – Louise Bessette – Walter Boudreau – Isabelle Bozzini – Jeremy Brown – Kathryn Cernauskas – Lawrence Cherney – Robert Cram – Lise Daoust – Julie-Anne Derome – Eve Egoyan – Victor Feldbrill – Salvador Ferreras – Judith Forst – Peter Gardner – Rivka Golani – Janet Hammock – Ian Hampton – John Hess – Gwen Hoebig – Beverley Johnston – David Kaplan – Elaine Keillor – Gary Kulesha – Veronique Lacroix – Marie-Chantal Leclair – Robert Leroux – Bill Linwood – Eduard Minevich – Mary Morrison – Marie-Danielle Parent – Alex Pauk – Heather Pawsey – Joseph Petric – Christina Petrowska Quilico – Barbara Pritchard – Olga Ranzenhofer – Shauna Rolston – Jacqueline Sorensen – Wayne Strongman – Sylvia Shadick-Taylor – Bramwell Tovey – Alain Trudel – Owen Underhill – Lorraine Vaillancourt – Pauline Vaillancourt – Jon Washburn

The evening’s all-Canadian program will feature the National Arts Centre Orchestra under the direction of maestro Jean-Philippe Tremblay, theGryphon Trio, flautist Robert Cram and pianist Andrew Tunis, clarinetist Kymball Sykes and pianist Jamie Parker performing works by Canadian composers who span the history of the CMC. These composers include Louis Applebaum, Steven Gellman, Denis Gougeon, Christos Hatzis, Alexina Louie, Phil Nimmons, Abigail Richardson, and Harry Somers.

The Canadian Music Centre and its Board of Directors gratefully acknowledge the tremendous dedication from its supporters both nationally and globally. We are truly humbled by their commitment to the CMC and Canadian new music. We are privileged to celebrate this milestone year with them, and we now enthusiastically look forward to what the next 50 years will bring.

Tickets to Celebrating Canadian Composers: The Canadian Music Centre’s 50th Anniversary are available in person at the NAC Box Office or by calling 613.947.7000 ext. 343

Congratulations to all 50 CMC Ambassadors and I'm proud to have worked with many of them over the years!

(Thanks, Heather!)

Faceless for the Arts in Canada

For those of you that haven't heard yet, there's a federal election coming up here in Canada on October 14. As in many European countries (and quite unlike the United States), government arts funding is an important revenue source for many arts organizations and individuals. A new Facebook group (with already close to 11,000 members) has just been created to build awareness for arts issues in the coming election by encouraging concerned citizens to leave their Facebook pictures blank. From the Faceless home page:

This is a roll call to all people who believe that Arts and Culture is a part of their lives and is important outside of the political spectrum. This is for artists, families, parents, friends, co-workers, relatives, enemies, neighbors, acquaintances, to all people who enjoy the arts and culture of this country and feel that it must be nurtured and cultivated. We need to send out a message to our politicians to let them know that there are more of us than they think and congruently that we are not going to vote for any person or party that plans to cut funding to arts and culture during this election. This is for all of us; people from all sides of the political landscape. This is not about what party you belong to, but how you feel about arts and culture in this country.

I feel very strongly about this issue, so I'll be one of those leaving their profile pictures blank until election day.

Lest you think I'm nuts, the Conference Board of Canada released a report last month stating that in 2007 cultural industries accounted for $84.6 billion of economic activity, or 7.4% of Canada's gross domestic product, as well as employing over 1.1 million people. This is a very important sector of the Canadian economy.

The Top Classical Music Blogs in Canada

I've been following a number of classical music blogs written by Canadians for quite a long time now. Most of them have been mentioned on previous occasions and are listed on my blogroll. However, in light of Scott Spiegelberg's list of the top 53 classical music blogs on Musical Perceptions, I have decided to do a separate ranking of Canadian classical music blogs. In this respect, I am indebted to Scott for his choice of using Technorati in order to rank blogs in this niche. I have used the same type of format that he uses, but have added locations where known. Since Technorati is not a perfect ranking system, I briefly thought of including feed readership but decided against it, as inbound list and feed readership stats are like apples and oranges--a subscription account represents one person while an inbound link might result in hundreds or even thousands of visitors over time.

In addition to blogs written within Canada I decided to include expatriate blogs written by Canadians living out of the country. Campbell Vertsei's blog was the only one I could find that fit into this category.

A special mention must be made of the now defunct Chicago Canadienne written by Erin Wall in Chicago, certainly the most-read Canadian blog in this niche, ever. Although Erin stopped writing her blog and removed it from public viewing well over a year ago, Chicago Canadienne was an inspiration to me and others. Perhaps her negative experience is why nearly half the authors on the top 11 list are either anonymous or use a nom de plume.

As I mentioned on my list of the top 50 classical music feeds on Bloglines, this type of activity is not an awards ceremony to show which blogs are "better" than the others but a springboard for further reading of the sites on the list whether they are ranked or not.

Finally, I would like to put forward the idea that the classical music blogosphere in Canada represents the performers, teachers, and listeners who choose to write about their stories, views and experiences, is an integral part of the cultural life of this country, and should have the potential to be valued as much as publications in other media.

The Top 11

(blog title, Technorati ranking as of noon June 4 2007, author, location)

1. The Collaborative Piano Blog: 33 Chris Foley (Toronto/Oakville)
2. Campbell Vertesi--Bassus Canadensus: 21 Campbell Vertesi (Cincinnati)
3. PianoKnits: 7 eusebius (unknown location)
4. My Other Life: 6 soundtrk (Vancouver)
4. The Transcontinental: 6 Otto van Karajanstein (unknown location)
6. Willy or Won't he? 3 Willym (Gatineau)
7. Help! I'm a Postmodernist: 2 Margaret (Toronto)
7. Urban Flute Project: 2 Jamie Thompson (Toronto)
9. Eugene Chan on Violinist.com: 1 Eugene Chan (Burnaby)
9. s55ael: 1 anonymous (St. John's)
9. The Resonant Life: 1 Rebecca Hass (Victoria)
9. Atelier S: 1 Stuart Graham (Toronto)

Unranked on Technorati at time of writing:

Keywerx: RCM Community School Keyboard Faculty (Toronto)
CBC Radio Two Blog: various CBC hosts (across Canada)
Kelsey Z. on Violinist.com: Kelsey Z. (Okanagan)
Rhiannon Schmidt on Violinist.com: Rhiannon Schmidt (Salmon Arm)

Please note: this list includes blogs I have found over 19 months of blogging, as well as my own. It doesn't include any French-language classical music blogs written in Quebec. If you know of any other blogs that you feel should make the list (especially on MySpace or LiveJournal), please contact me either through email or comment. I'll be updating as information comes available.