In the way it functioned, PromArt had criteria that were fairly strict. The tour had to have at least ten performances; it had to go to three countries, and one of the countries had to be a priority country for the Canadian government, economically or politically, such as Britain, France, Italy, China, Japan; and it only paid out part of the travel and cargo shipment to the first destination. If you had a European tour, it would pay to get it to Paris and back from Paris, but all of the European touring inside the continent would be assumed by the local presenters. It was really to get you to market, and once there, then the local market would look after you. So it's basically to make Canadian industry competitive on the home terrain.
It's a common practice; it's what pretty well all the major developed countries do for their artists. Some are subsidized more than others. There are some projects that need a higher level of subsidy because it's important for the Canadian government that they be there, and so they pay more of the cost. Other times, you can get it so that the presenters actually pay quite a bit of the cargo and the travel, so that the investment of the Canadian government is less. It depends on negotiation. We try to get as much covered as possible.