Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the committee.
My name is Greg Johnston. I'm the president of the Songwriters Association of Canada.
On behalf of the SAC, I'd like to express our thanks for the invitation and the opportunity to appear before this committee. In addition, we would like to applaud the committee's efforts to hear directly from creators.
The SAC is a registered national arts organization with approximately 1,200 members dedicated to educating, assisting, and representing Canadian songwriters. We exist to nurture, develop, and protect the creative, business, and legal interests of music creators in Canada and around the world by pursuing the right to benefit from and receive fair compensation for the use of their work; the advancement of the craft and enterprise of songwriting; and the development of activities that allow members to reach out and enjoy the sense of community shared by creators.
Our volunteer board of directors is made up of professional songwriters from across the country. Diversity and regional representation are priorities when selecting the board's slate of directors.
It should be noted that the SAC is a signatory to “Sounding Like a Broken Record: Principled Copyright Recommendations from the Music Industry”, a document prepared by the members of the Canadian Music Policy Coalition. This document has been presented to Minister Mélanie Joly and the Department of Canadian Heritage. It is our opinion that the recommendations put forth are actionable and would directly benefit creators.
I am a multi-instrumentalist session musician. I am a record producer. I am a songwriter. I am an audio/visual composer. I am also an entrepreneur, a small business owner, a taxpayer, a volunteer, a husband, and a father of two teenage musicians. I'm not a lobbyist, a copyright expert, or a lawyer, although there are a few on our board of directors.
I am also anonymous, like so many of my colleagues. We're the middle class of the music creator community and, quite simply put, two decades of disruptive technologies have left my community facing very difficult realities.
The way songwriters are remunerated for use of their works deserves special consideration. We are paid per purchase, per stream, and per public performance, which makes strong regulatory environments crucial to our financial success. As individuals, our voices are rarely heard, which is why we rely on and support collective management to represent our community's interests. In Canada, we are fortunate to have SOCAN represent our performing rights domestically and internationally. However, the speed at which technology develops demands that our collective management organizations be allowed to adapt and protect our rights as quickly.
On Copyright Board reform, the SAC believes that a strong, nimble, well-funded, and adequately staffed Copyright Board is a cornerstone to our success and survival. In a new digital reality, the speed at which tariffs are ruled upon and implemented is crucial. The technology sector has built staggering fortunes, many of which have been built on the backs of creators and their content. This David and Goliath dichotomy is simply unsustainable.
These, however, are the opportunities where government, in co-operation with the Copyright Board, can create a regulatory framework that serves technology, consumers—our fans—and the creators themselves. It is our opinion that strong, decisive action to reform the Copyright Board is a win for creators, a win for the little guy, and ultimately a win for consumers and fans, who we believe truly want and would even insist that creators be fairly remunerated.