Evidence of meeting #31 for Canadian Heritage in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was artists.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:30 p.m.
Bloc
Carole Lavallée Bloc Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC
My first question is addressed to Mr. D'Eith.
You said that you had been consulted.
12:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Music BC Industry Association
Yes, I was consulted by the minister, but not about cutting this program.
12:30 p.m.
Bloc
Carole Lavallée Bloc Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC
Do you consider that you were consulted in a formal way? Did you fill out a form or was it an informal private conversation?
12:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Music BC Industry Association
No, unfortunately, I'm brought into a lot of these things, so I can't remember whether or not I was actually brought in formally to talk on this topic, but we've had many top discussions nationally on this. I think where I was able to address it most directly was with the minister. Again, we were able to say there was a great need to replace the Trade Routes funding, because that was cut, and that we also needed some help for digital music.
As I said, at no time was there any discussion on cutting this fund.
12:30 p.m.
Bloc
Carole Lavallée Bloc Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC
You understand that your testimony is of tremendous importance. In fact, out of the 500 groups referred to by the parliamentary secretary, you are the only person who told us that they were consulted regarding the Canada Music Fund.
Do you remember your conversation with the minister?
12:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Music BC Industry Association
Oh no, I recall my conversation with the minister very well. I am just saying that while I know there were some consultations that happened generally, I just can't recall—
12:30 p.m.
Bloc
Carole Lavallée Bloc Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC
Could you repeat to us what was said during your conversation?
12:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Music BC Industry Association
Sure. At the the time, we were trying to get funding for the Juno Awards, and the federal government at that point was not willing to contribute to the provincial part of it. That was the reason for the meeting. At the same time, we were able to talk about general issues, including the Canada Music Fund, FACTOR, and also the cuts to Trade Routes. I brought those up, and how important the need for export marketing for music was within the industry. And I also brought up the idea of help for digital music.
But I think you'll find as the week goes on that you will probably talk to other people who were formally consulted, like FACTOR, Heather Ostertag, and CIMA—formerly CIRPA. There were a number of organizations formally consulted on this.
12:30 p.m.
Bloc
Carole Lavallée Bloc Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC
You understand that the kind of persons or groups that were consulted had their own commercial interests to defend. That is what these people defended, as you also did. You say that you were consulted about the renewal of the Canada Music Fund, but not about the cuts.
Did the minister ask you what would happen if the specialized music program was terminated?
12:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Music BC Industry Association
There was never any discussion of that, of course. This was as much a surprise to us as anyone else. As I said in my presentation, we don't advocate a derogation of the funding to the Canada Council and we would never advocate that.
12:30 p.m.
Bloc
Carole Lavallée Bloc Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC
I'm sorry for interrupting you, but I do not have much time.
Thus, you were not consulted about the termination of the specialized music program.
12:30 p.m.
Bloc
Carole Lavallée Bloc Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC
Mr. Pineau, the Canadian Conference of the Arts is a forum. The parliamentary secretary said that 500 groups had been consulted regarding the termination of the program. Do you know these 500 people?
He said there were over....
12:30 p.m.
National Director, Canadian Conference of the Arts
No, I am not aware of this. It is normal not to consult an organization such as ours regarding the renewal of some specific program. When the news came out, during the summer, I was on vacation. We found the press release a few weeks later. Actually, summer is often a calm period for artistic organizations.
For us, the most important priority was to renew the final phase of the program that was then known by the name "Today is Tomorrow". It was one of the important components. It was among the cuts that had not been announced in June, and we were wondering if there would be another one in the publication program. I do not know whether this was done, I did not follow the situation closely enough. We were happy with that. As I just said, Mr. Del Mastro could theoretically have quoted me and described how happy we were with this commitment, which was real. Had we been consulted—which would have been unlikely—we would have said no, just as we are saying no today. Cutting the budgets for basic research is not a good idea.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
12:35 p.m.
NDP
Olivia Chow NDP Trinity—Spadina, ON
Thank you.
I notice that the music fund this year in 2009 is $27.6 million. That's about $10 million more than 2001--remember, I'm a New Democrat, not a Conservative--and that is $4 million more than 2005. Having said that, yes, there is a big cut of $1.25 million off the diversity funds. You can hear from my questions from previous panels that I'm very much opposed to this fund. Thinking about how we move forward in a 2010 budget, this upcoming budget, the Canada Council has a commitment of $181 million, including $25 million in new funding.
If, in the ideal situation, the Canada Council received an extra, say, $2 million for specialized music distribution and specialized sound recording grants for those who are dealing with contemporary Canadian compositions and spoken words, music, all of the things that diversity funds used to fund, would that get us out of the jam of having all the most creative, edgy, or beginning artists--over a hundred of them--being unable to get some grants to get themselves started?
Having asked about the best way forward, would that be the best way? Or should it be restored as part of the $26.6-million Canada Music Fund? Or should it, in an ideal world, come through the Canada Council in an increase of, say, $1.5 million?
12:35 p.m.
Executive Director, Music BC Industry Association
Obviously, if we could increase the funding this problem goes away. We get our new programs, which we are desperately needing, and the specialized music gets funded. If you were able to give the Canada Council some extra money to replace the funding that was cut, then the problem is solved. Great idea.
October 22nd, 2009 / 12:35 p.m.
National Director, Canadian Conference of the Arts
Yes, it's an idea we will certainly fully support as well. From all the information we have, it should remain with the Canada Council, because this is not an issue of pitching FACTOR or MUSICACTION against the Canada Council. They are operating under different circumstances, with different mandates, under different criteria, and it is not taking anything off FACTOR to say their concerns are not with this sort of developmental money. They have to have a return on their investment. They are making loans.
So yes, and I will not waste the opportunity: you started with $2 million—$2 million would be fine, because I'm sure the extra $700,000 could be put to good use in terms of music development. We're not too greedy; we would just be happy if it were back to the $1.3 million as a base budget of the Canada Council and remain there. They will be able to show, in I hope 15 years' time, the same sorts of results they've shown for the past 23 years with this program, which according to all evaluation processes—and God knows government evaluation processes are tight—show that it's run efficiently and it does what it's supposed to do.
12:40 p.m.
NDP
Olivia Chow NDP Trinity—Spadina, ON
So have there been specific requests? I guess that's what we're talking about. I hope this committee can make that recommendation.
12:40 p.m.
National Director, Canadian Conference of the Arts
We did not specifically say in our letter to Minister Moore that the money should go to the Canada Council. We've taken that for granted. We just said it's $1.3 million, and surely to God in the next budget you can find that to prevent the disappearance of something that is important. This may be a sort of collateral, a little flower that was crushed by mistake. That's our best hope. Let's recognize it and let's heal it.
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
Tim Uppal Conservative Edmonton—Sherwood Park, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for coming, witnesses.
I'm really not going to get into the details of the consultations and the process, because over 500 people—individuals, artists, groups—were consulted.
I agree with you that the five-year renewal for the Canada Music Fund brings stability not only to that fund but to the industry itself. This program we're talking about specifically serves fewer than a hundred grants a year across Canada. Most of those applicants still receive funding from other government programs, and those other programs are now stronger because of the investment in the Canada Music Fund.
Almost 50% of the albums produced with CMF support in the last year were albums of niche genres of music. With regard to funding niche music in the last fiscal year, the CMF provided funding of over $1 million for classical, $1.7 million for jazz, and over $3 million for roots music. Apart from the CMF, the Canada Council has a $30-million budget for its music, which includes $9 million for specialized funding. So the door is definitely open for artists to receive funding from other channels.
If you can, Mr. D'Eith, talk a little bit about the importance of investment in digital music of all types, especially in this day and age.
12:40 p.m.
Executive Director, Music BC Industry Association
If you read the newspaper, you're probably aware that the entire recording side of the music industry has been in a tailspin for the last five or six years because of the digital downloads and the whole phenomenon of the Internet. In traditional retail, we're seeing bankruptcies in distributors, retail stores, and labels. Major labels have been firing wholesale and going back to being marketing companies.
An interesting phenomenon is that a lot of the responsibility for artist development has fallen back on the artists themselves. One of the areas of development that artists and independent labels can use is online digital music that can be sold legitimately through iTunes, subscription services, and mobile downloads around the world.
This is a new model that is just growing now. We isolated this as a specific need for the music industry—to try to grow the ability of the music industry to develop digital music, digital sales, and digital marketing. This would help replace all the traditional sales that have been lost over the last five to six years. We're talking billions and billions of dollars in sales losses, with 70,000 firings in major labels in North America. It's been devastating. Having this funding right now is a recognition that we need to move forward and embrace the new technology. But we need some help.
We feel that this issue of the Canadian music diversity fund has been pitted against the digital and the export. We're comparing apples and oranges. It's a shame that a press release said that we were taking money from Canadian music diversity and giving it to the industry for digital and export marketing. It pitted the industry against the non-traditional community, which we just don't accept. We're not in competition. We embrace the non-commercial community. It's just a shame that this happened. But the need is real, it's now, and support for digital music is essential.
