FEDERAL, PROVINCIAL, & MUNICIPAL MATTERS

CIC reports show that since the election of Joe Volpe through put of claiment applications has increased significantly. We believe that his government has made citizenship and immigration a priority for this fall.

The CIC Strategies report can be found at http://www.cic.gov.ca/report.html

Advocacy was the theme of the CCA's Chalmers Conference in Ottawa. Arts administrators and cultural lobbyists gathered to seek advice on how to get the ear of the government. How to get issues on the government's agenda is a complicated process involving knowledge of government departments and public servants.

Parliament's Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage was praised for rising above partisan politics.Members include Toronto Liberal MP Sarmite Bulte, the Bloc's Maka Kotto and the Tories' Culture Critic Bev Oda. Unfortunately the government has done little to implement any of the committee's 97 recommendations. Said the Globe & Mail's Kate Taylor, "Kotto who is Vice-Chair of the committee, pointed out, at this level, advocates for the arts are only knocking on open doors. He suggested they start pushing finance ministers instead of culture ministers."

Taylor has stated the need for a "real cultural policy" in addition to the funding that may temporarily resolve problems that continue to plague the sector.

GENERAL INTEREST

In-4mation Xcellence Inc. is concidering adding a day planner to it's existing applications. Grayden M. Vaughan, President and CEO of the firm says that "to be the best, we must offer our customers the most".
He goes on to say that this will bring their applications into the international realm of technology, and leave nothing to be desired at this time.
This will give you:
· calander schedualing functionality
· reminders and attendee acceptance functionality
If you are a current client/user of one of In-4mation Xcellence Inc.s applications we'd like to hear what you have to say on the matter. Please logon to ourwebsite and give us your input on this subject.