The Canada Council gave grants under this program. They gave money that was not expected to be paid back. It was up to 60% of the cost of the project based on the percentage of Canadian content, which was often 100%. I hope that's clear. It was free money that did not need to be paid back and it gave the artists the licence to do what they did.
As to peer review, the decisions were made by three, four, or five people drawn from the milieu represented by the artists. We had what we called a pod system, which meant that when we looked at contemporary classical composition we would have contemporary classical artists, composers, managers, and symphony administrators from across the country. The same thing for folk. We would have people from that milieu, and on down the line. The decisions were made by people who had a great deal of knowledge about the specific genre of music that was being performed. We would listen, we would talk, there would be bloody battles in the room, and in the end the decisions were based more or less on the number of applications in each genre and the money available.