Thank you to the chair and committee members for the invitation to appear on behalf of Universities Canada.
We represent Canada's 96 universities, whose teaching, research and learning mission is key to providing Canadian students with the skills they need for the knowledge economy.
Thank you to each one of you for the vital role that you are playing in the statutory review of Canada's Copyright Act, particularly looking at remuneration models for artists, including writers and creative industries.
Universities across this country play a vital role in supporting Canada's creative communities. From the beautiful new campus at the Emily Carr School of Art and Design to the Purdy Crawford Centre for the Arts on Mount Allison's campus, universities are hubs for Canadian creators.
It is for this reason and based on the importance of a balanced approach to copyright that Universities Canada and its member institutions have been actively engaged in the INDU committee's review of the act, as well as contributing to the Government of Canada's 2016 review of Canadian cultural policy.
I am very pleased to be joined today by Allan Bell, who is the associate librarian for digital programs and services at the University of British Columbia. Like universities across this country, UBC has implemented extensive measures to ensure compliance with copyright law. Mr. Bell would be happy to take any questions that you might have about how copyright compliance works on campuses.
Universities are producers, owners and and users of protected documents, and advocate for a balanced approach to copyright.
Universities stimulate the creativity of millions of students, allow researchers to give free reign to their intellectual curiosity, and strengthen communities.
Our sector respects copyright and helps artists and emerging and established creative industries to succeed.
We are fully aware of the real financial difficulties experienced by many Canadian artists like musicians and authors. However, we also know that fair use by educational institutions is not the reason for those difficulties.
The reason, rather, lies with the disruption caused by digital technologies, which change the way content is consumed the world over. That is the main problem that needs to be overcome by copyright holders.
When they testified before your committee last November 22, federal officials spoke at length about the impact of the digital disruption on Canadian creative industries. They also recognized that changing the Copyright Act was not the most effective strategy to improve creators' remuneration.
This is also what we observe on campuses across the country.
Universities value copyrighted material and are committed to copyright compliance. Canadian university library expenditures are increasing annually, exceeding $1 billion over the past three years combined; however, to meet the evolving needs of their communities, libraries are changing what they buy.
Students today are demanding access 24 hours a day across multiple platforms. For example, at the University of British Columbia, the library's digital resources grew from 21% in 2002 to 82% in 2017. That's a 60% shift in just 15 years. Over that same period, the circulation of the library's print collection steadily declined. Nearly 70% of the library's print collection has not been taken off the shelf, let alone signed out, since 2004. That's 70%.
There has also been a sharp increase in the use of e-reserve systems instead of printed course packs. In other words, new platforms for accessing course materials are enhancing educational opportunities offered to students and are making university studies more affordable and accessible.
Unlike printed books, digital content accessed by university libraries generally includes reproduction rights. Contracts control how this content is used and whether fair dealing applies. In most cases, content is shared though links by protected digital locks rather than copied, so that reliance on fair dealing is actually decreasing on campuses across the country. As a result, limiting fair dealing through changes to the Copyright Act would not be an effective tool for subsidizing an industry that, as we have just heard, is trying to adapt to the changing values and consumer patterns of its customer base.
The Supreme Court of Canada has identified fair dealing as a right and has repeatedly recognized the importance of balancing copyright interests. Five landmark decisions made by the court in 2012 transformed the way copyright is being managed, and they were a genesis for a shift in the way the education system is approaching copyright. However, the legal context for fair dealing is continuing to evolve. Several active court cases are still pending. Parliament should allow the courts to continue their work before further legislative intervention.
While limiting fair dealing for education is not the solution, the government can indeed mitigate the impacts of digital disruption on the creative community. We encourage committee members to consider policies and programs that can directly assist individual creators and support industries that help get creators' works to market. For example, federal funding programs and organizations that provide direct support to current creators could increase. This might include organizations like the Canadian Council for the Arts, which manages a program called the public lending right, which provides financial compensation to eligible authors for lost royalties due to public access to their books in Canadian libraries.
On support for industry, such programs as the Canada Book Fund or Creative Export Canada, both managed by the Department of Canadian Heritage, assist publishers and other organizations, including not-for-profits and indigenous governments, in helping Canadian creative content reach local and global markets.
Finally, an expanded investment in work-integrated learning and entrepreneurship for students across all disciplines, including the full scope of fine arts and arts disciplines, will help prepare Canadian graduates for the changing global creative economy. Canada's future prosperity and the success of our creative industries depend on an exchange of ideas and knowledge. Changes to fair dealing would stem this vital flow, hampering the education, research, innovation and creation that are essential to a vibrant and thriving cultural economy.
Thank you for the opportunity to come and speak with you today. We welcome any questions you might have. That includes Mr. Bell, who will provide further details on how copyright materials are accessed and managed at the institutional level.
Thank you very much.