Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I am here as the chair of the Canadian Council of Music Industry Associations. I think a little explanation about what those are may be in order.
Quebec does not have an MIA . In Ontario, there is one in northern Ontario but not in southern Ontario. There are 10 MIAs across the country in every province plus the Yukon. The Northwest Territories is in the midst of forming one.
An MIA is a provincially incorporated non-profit corporation funded almost entirely by the respective provincial government. It's their way of putting money into the music industry. As non-profits, our role is not to make money, so to speak, but rather what we do most is provide professional development opportunities for our members.
On the question of members, we have at any one time about 5,000 registered members. But that number is actually much higher, because most of us allow band memberships where one person in the band can buy a membership and all four or five members can actually access our services.
We do professional development. Some of us provide pro bono legal services. We do a lot of representations to our provincial governments for advocacy. In that sense we are the representative of the average person on the street who just wants to do an album for the first time. Once we help them develop to a certain point, other groups sort of take on the higher development of their careers.
On the act itself, I'm here to say, contrary to what some people may have told you in the past, that it does have a tremendous effect on the street, from coast to coast to coast, and here's why. I think you can look at the current strategic plan for my organization, which is Saskatchewan Music. We had a very lofty goal this year in our strategic plan, and that was to bring our artists in Saskatchewan from their average annual income of $8,000 up to the poverty line. That's our strategic long-term goal, and we don't know if we can make it. So every decision on this bill affects the person on the street.
We have specific positions on certain provisions, but in the interest of time, they are in my written submissions.
Thank you very much.