Community, Sport, and Cultural Development Minister Ida Chong remains under fire for the way she distributed $3.25 million earmarked for the arts from the 2010 Sport and Arts Legacy fund.

The money, left over after $6.75 million of the $10-million fund was allocated to the B.C. Arts Council, has become a point of contention in recent weeks, after arts groups began questioning how the money would be disbursed before March 31, the end of the government’s fiscal year.

In a phone call, Chong insisted that the funds have all been distributed, and that a full accounting of where the money went will be published as part of the government’s public accounts this summer.

“As each of the organizations [that received money] is prepared to make the announcement with government, that’s when we’ll do them,” said Chong.

Chong defended the discretionary allocation, saying one-off funds were handed out in response to specific requests. “If you put it as an open application, then I would tell you that it would immediately be exhausted, but that wouldn’t change the fact that we would still get requests after that program is exhausted,” she said.

NDP arts critic Spencer Chandra Herbert said he’s puzzled by the government’s reluctance to give a full accounting of the funding before the summer. “Normally, governments like to tell people how money is spent, whether it’s through press releases or just information posted on a website,” he said. “What are the Liberals hiding that they don’t want this information public until July? Is the money being improperly spent? Do they think the public would be upset about who got the money? Why the secrecy?”

He pointed out that the B.C. Arts Council does have programs to give out one-time project grants. “There’s project funding, one-time-only funding, through the B.C. Arts Council as well. A lot of their money is one-time-only funding. So to try and claim you couldn’t have a program because it’s one-time-only funding shows she doesn’t have a clue what she’s talking about.”

Lindsay Brown, spokesperson for Arts Advocacy B.C., said the issue of transparency is of primary concern. “We would know if arts organizations that we’re aware of had received that money, but we can’t find anyone who’s received that money. Where are the arts organizations who are actually seeing this money? We shouldn’t be having to deal with this level of mystery,” she said. “The very fact that the minister doesn’t want to talk about where the money has gone, we can’t help but feel suspicious about it.…We don’t know where the money’s going and we can’t trust that there is a proper process in this money, and this is why everyone in every sector is opposed to discretionary funds.”

Minister Chong has released some information about where some of the funds have gone. Last month she announced that $800,000 had been earmarked for community anniversary celebrations, including the City of Victoria’s 150th anniversary. During a parliamentary committee meeting, she said that $200,000 went to the Royal Roads Global Centre for Creative Industries and Entrepreneurship; Music B.C. received about $50,000; and $150,000 went to a pilot arts after-school program.