Mr. Chairman, no offence taken.
Ladies and gentlemen members of the committee, I would like to begin by thanking you for this opportunity to speak today on behalf of the Union des écrivaines et des écrivains québécois, in my capacity as president of the organization first elected in December 2004 in the first of three consecutive mandates.
To begin with, I would like to give you some background information about UNEQ, a professional organization founded on March 21, 1977 by 50 or so writers on the initiative of Jacques Godbout. The UNEQ represents almost 1,400 writers, poets, novelists, playwrights, essayists, authors who write for children and scientific and technical writers. The UNEQ's mandate is to work to promote and disseminate Quebec literature in Quebec, Canada and abroad, and to defend the socio-economic rights of writers. It was recognized in 1990 as the most representative association of artists in the literary community under the Loi sur le statut professionnel des artistes des arts visuels, des métiers d'art et de la littérature et sur leurs contrats avec les diffuseurs, L.R.Q, chapter S-32.01.
The UNEQ was also certified in 1996 by the Canadian Artists and Producers Professional Relations Tribunal, giving it the exclusive right to negotiate with federally regulated producers for the purposes of reaching a framework agreement setting out conditions of employment for self-employed professional writers.
I do not intend to discuss the direct impact of the PromArt and Trade Routes programs on the UNEQ, which was not one of the beneficiaries of these programs, for obvious reasons. Instead, I will focus on the international dissemination of the works of some of our members that is made possible through federal government support.
Among the cancelled programs, PromArt was the one most often used by publishers, who would receive assistance towards the payment of travel costs for writers invited to meet with their foreign readers at book fairs and launches, or any other activity connected to book promotion outside Canada. Only travel costs were covered under PromArt. This was, therefore, a shared-cost program which was deeply appreciated by both publishers and writers, as it lowered the cost of promotional campaigns and facilitated agreements with foreign editors who had translated the book, or with foreign organizations that invited authors to their countries. It is through the attendance of our writers and publishers at international meetings, symposia and book fairs that Canadian and Quebec literature can become better known internationally.
Last August, Pascal Assathiany, Director of Éditions du Boréal publishing house, pointed out that the PromArt program had enabled two writers whose works had been published by his firm to make a name for themselves across the globe, including Gil Courtemanche, author of Un dimanche à la piscine à Kigali, and Gaétan Soucy, author of La Petite fille qui aimait trop les allumettes, who subsequently saw their work translated into a number of languages. Through PromArt, these writers were invited abroad by Canadian embassies and several different countries, including the Netherlands, as the publisher himself pointed out to journalist Paul Journet of La Presse, saying, and I quote: “These invitations helped them see their work translated into more than 20 languages. Only about $3,000 or $4,000 was needed to pay for their plane ticket and their stay there, and to organize meetings.” According to Mr. Assathiany, in the last five years, between $25,000 and $30,000 has been invested in promoting works published by Boréal. Even if we multiply that by the number of Quebec publishing firms whose writers have made a breakthrough internationally—a half-dozen at most—we would still be talking about modest, but at the same time extremely useful, amounts of money, as I am sure you will agree.
Again, the Association nationale des éditeurs de livres, or ANEL, generally benefited from the Trade Routes program. In 2008, it received approximately $15,000 under the program, a grant that allowed the organization to take part in the Escale du livre in Bordeaux, in the Book Fair in London, and to successfully carry out a project in China which has had a direct impact on the career of writers whose works, on such occasions, benefit from exposure outside our borders.
Notwithstanding the allegations made by the former Minister of Canadian Heritage, Ms. Josée Verner, allegations that continue to be made by her successor, Mr. Moore, to the effect that these programs were poorly managed and ineffective, for their part, publishing sector stakeholders believe that, even though grants provided were modest, the funding served its purpose, which makes the cancellation of these programs that much more regrettable, in their collective opinion.
Another comment made was, and I quote: “[…] most of the budget comes from Québec Édition, a partnership between ANEL and SODEC, and the Association for the Export of Canadian Books”, this time by Pierre Lefrançois, Executive Director of the ANEL, when speaking to the same journalist from La Presse. He went on to say: “But, for an organization like ours, every penny counts.”
Naysayers like to repeat that Quebec and Canadian publishing is oversubsidized. However, they may be interested in knowing that government assistance only represents 7 p. 100 of the industry's total revenues.
As for overall subsidies granted the publishing industry, they are infinitely smaller than those that benefit Bell Helicopter or Bombardier.
Given that our best writers have access to creative development grants provided by Canadian Heritage through the Canada Council for the Arts, the cancellation of programs that provide assistance for foreign exposure, as well as the promotion and export of Canadian works, sends a particularly paradoxical message. In the absence of new programs to support the international promotion of our literature, again, to quote Pascal Assathiany: “It would be a little like subsidizing Bombardier to produce airplanes, but not helping it to sell them on the international market.”
Notwithstanding the alleged ineffectiveness of the PromArt and Trade Routes programs, their cancellation seems to consistent with a logic that I and my colleagues find worrisome. Since the Conservatives first took office, we have had occasion to deplore the dismantling of cultural services in our Canadian embassies, which is becoming increasingly difficult not to interpret as the expression of an ideology that clearly does not support international exposure for the craftspeople and products of an industry that contributes just as much to Canada's image as it does to its economic dynamism.
A statement made to the National Post last September by Minister Jim Flaherty, with respect to the cancellation of these programs, continues to haunt me: “We are a conservative government, and Cabinet ministers also wear that hat”, he said. This is not a bureaucratic process, but a decision made by ministers who sit on the Treasury Board and have their own ideas about these programs. I don't have to tell you that I certainly hope I am wrong in fearing the worst.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your kind attention.