In January 31, 2018, IMAA sent a letter to Simon Brault, Director and CEO of Canada Council for the Arts questioning the role of program officers and peer committees.

This letter refers to two documents that were published online by the Canada Council for the Arts:

• “The Application Assessment Process and the Awarding of Grants” downloaded on December 18, 2017 (the document has since been modified)
• “Peer Assessment at the Canada Council for the Arts: How the Council Makes its Grant Decisions” downloaded on December 18, 2017

“The peer committee must be in a position to make funding recommendations to the program officer and the Board of the Canada Council. If the programming officer is to maintain complete control of grant budgets and their allocation, without input from peer committees and the arts community, the arts community is denied a clear and transparent funding process and the program officer put in a position of potential conflict of interest.”

Read the letter (PDF)

Read the response from Canada Council (PDF)