Good morning, esteemed members of the committee.
Thank you for the invitation to appear before you today to present the main impacts of the pandemic on our artists and cultural workers in the Canadian and Acadian francophonie.
My name is Martin Théberge and I am the president of the Fédération culturelle canadienne-française, or FCCF. As already mentioned, I am accompanied by Marie-Christine Morin, our executive director.
We are the political voice of arts and culture in Canada's francophone minority communities. At the outset, I would like to say that the pandemic is currently threatening more than 40 years of artistic and cultural development as well as our people's access to their language and culture.
When an organization like Les compagnons des francs loisirs in North Bay, Ontario, dies, it means that there are no more French cultural activities in this community, except those for students, at school. This is also true in Whitehorse, Yukon, St. John's, Newfoundland and everywhere else in the Canadian and Acadian francophonie.
The linguistic and community vitality of our communities is at risk without coordinated support for arts and culture. Knowing that the arts and culture are a refuge for the well-being of individuals and society in general, the issue is all the more serious for our local French-language communities. Thank you for taking action.
Our focus today is to ensure equity and inclusion for the Canadian and Acadian francophonie. Among the rest of our peers in the arts and culture sector, they too should be able to experience resiliency, recovery and revival from this pandemic. Outside of Quebec, the GDP from the francophonie culture sector accounts for approximately $1.1 billion per year, the economic spinoffs are approximately $1.2 billion per year, and there are more than 26,000 jobs. We present today with the intention of improving the rollout of government pandemic supports to our members while addressing historical systemic inequities that place further limitations on access.
As with all organizations in the sector, our groups are under enormous financial and personal pressure.