Our total budget has decreased by 25%, given the current context. We are very cautious because, as I mentioned earlier, 72% of the money spent at our event comes from tourists from abroad. Since the borders are closed, we will only have local tourism. So we will only get tourists from neighbouring provinces. We have been very cautious in our forecasts because holding an outdoor event in the winter means that we can't know what most of our costs will be before the festival starts. We don't have a crystal ball to predict how much snow, freezing rain or rain we will have to deal with, as we do every year.
Not only has the pandemic made us more cautious, but it has also taken us back to our roots, that is, why our event came to be. It was to stimulate the economy. Officials both from the Institut national de santé publique du Québec and from Quebec City have therefore approved our request to hold events in various neighbourhoods. We are very well supported, but we really wanted to make a community effort to bring us closer to the businesses.
However, we are not going to kid ourselves. The number of artists we hire this year will obviously be different, since the Carnival normally takes on 600 artists every year. Given the current context, we can't hire as many.
As far as private funding goes, the Quebec Winter Carnival has had very loyal partners for more than 20 years, and most private investors are still with us. Even given COVID-19, we even welcomed a new major partner, Scotiabank, which has invested over $100,000, which is extraordinary and very welcome news. In terms of federal funding, to be more specific, we get a three-year EDC grant for the Quebec regions. So our grant has already been confirmed with EDC. That's the largest grant the Carnival receives.