Toronto's future culture shock!

Creative Capital Gains is a report that was tabled last week at City Hall. I hope that the mayor and council were willing to pay attention.
One of the conclusions of the report which is co-chaired by Karen Kain is that private sector support definitely can not replace public investment. Private support follows public investment. This runs contrary to Rob Ford's suggestion that funding the arts should be entirely left to private benefactors. The report asks that the city stand by its goal to increase its spending on culture to $25 per capita from the current $18 per capita by 2013.
The report's main theme is "Don't think of the arts as a fringe benefit that makes life in Toronto nice. Instead, think of culture as a magic business engine that represents out best shot at being one of the world's most successful cities in the 21st. century."
There is overwhelming evidence that the arts are a catalyst for economic gains in Toronto. Toronto's cultural economy contributes more than $9 billion a year to the city's GDP and employs 130,00 people-almost as many as Ontario's auto industry. Wonder how much many of the people in the arts earn?
Toronto has 66 per cent more artists than any other city in Canada and 25 per cent of the creative industry jobs in Canada are here.
These reasons should be enough to convince Rob Ford to support the arts. Time will tell.