Mandate Letter Outlines Responsibilities for BC's Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture

The Hon. Lisa Beare | Image: Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture. 

Doubling the government’s investment in the BC Arts Council over the next four years and establishing an infrastructure fund to help provide space for BC artists are among the priorities for The Honourable Lisa Beare, BC’s recently appointed Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture.

The tasks are among several outlined in Beare’s mandate letter from Premier John Horgan. The Premier’s mandate letters to all his ministers were published July 24. 

Beare’s letter listed six other priorities that Horgan expects the Minister to “make substantive progress on.” These include:

• championing tourism as a job creator and working to expand tourism-marketing efforts internationally;
• ensuring that BC’s tourism sector is represented on trade missions;
• increasing investments in Creative BC over four years;
• ensure that BC film and TV makers “get their fair share of federal investments from Telefilm, and other federal government programs”;
• expanding BC’s film labour tax credit to include BC writers; and
• developing a “community capital infrastructure fund to upgrade and build sports facilities, playgrounds, local community centres, and arts and culture spaces.”

In each of the letters to his ministers, Horgan also reiterated other NDP campaign promises, including making life affordable for families, improving health care and education, and “building a strong, sustainable, innovative economy that works for everyone." 

The letters also remind ministers to make a priority of consulting with the Green Party on major topics, in line with the agreement the two parties reached before the NDP minority government was sworn in.