Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and honourable members of the committee. Thank you for the invitation to speak to you about the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Canadian arts and culture sector.
Before I start, I want to express my gratitude to the Government of Canada for your support of our sector. Most notably, programs such as the Canada emergency wage subsidy and the Canada emergency rent subsidy have allowed organizations like ours to navigate the pandemic. I'll speak more on this later, but I wanted to start by expressing our immense gratitude.
As a citizen of this country who recently returned to Canada after 35 years of living abroad, I am humbled by the committee's invitation to participate in today's session. It is my privilege to represent Arts Commons, the largest arts centre in western Canada and the nation's third largest arts facility. Occupying more than 560,000 square feet in downtown Calgary, Arts Commons stewards an artistic ecosystem that consists of six resident companies, each a world-class institution that contributes to the cultural fabric of Canada.
Under more traditional circumstances, Arts Commons hosts approximately 1,800 events per year welcoming 600,000 visitors of all ages and partnering with more than 200 local community groups. Our focus on collective impact allows me to speak to you today on behalf of a vibrant community of artists, arts professionals and audiences who continue to struggle in the absence of in-person cultural experiences that remind us of our shared humanity. This is a community that recognizes that, while science will get us out of this pandemic, it is the arts that will get us through it.
As the husband of a veteran New York City public school teacher, and in my role overseeing all global education and community engagement programs at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts before starting my tenure at Arts Commons, it became my core belief that one of the strongest ways for arts organizations to remain relevant is by embracing our civic responsibilities. There has never been a more urgent time to do that than now.
Understanding how we intersect with areas such as creative youth development, mental health, tourism and economic revitalization, just to name a few, allows us to measure our impact on society and reposition ourselves as massive contributors to the socio-economic recovery of our nation. While the pandemic has made clear that this civic call to action is necessary, it has also reminded us of the fragility of our sector. The financial implications of the pandemic are considerable. Financial oversight is and will continue to be extremely critical; however, that oversight cannot just focus on business results but must focus on our ability to operate compassionately as well, which is why Arts Commons has been active developing new programs and investing in our infrastructure and future while we remain closed to the public.
The business model needed to support a thriving arts organization has never been a simple one, and at Arts Commons we are critically aware of managing risk. In fact, in February, we moved quickly to implement our existing risk management plan. The plan could never have predicted the magnitude and duration of the pandemic. The financial impact to our operations was significant, including over 41% lost in earned revenues for our 2019-20 fiscal year alone. Despite this projection, we chose to not make quick decisions around cutting expenses in the short term. Instead, we focused on three primary objectives.
One was remaining a values-led institution, two was protecting and retaining staff, and three was focusing on the future. While our goal was to manage the crisis, ultimately the question that guided all of our decisions was whether we would be able to reopen by focusing on the right priorities, keeping our people safe and preparing for a future that would need the arts more than ever. Over the last 10 months, we have built reopening scenarios, researched government support programs and drafted budget forecasts countless times. Through our efforts, we have accomplished many successes, but I'd like to call your attention to four of them.
First, we have retained 93% of our salaried staff at full pay and kept them engaged in the maintenance of our facilities, the creation of new programs and the development of re-entry and reopening protocols. Keeping our core staff employed was made possible by the federal government's Canada emergency wage subsidy programs resulting in recoveries of over $1 million.
Second, we provided our casual staff with a week's pay following our closure and provided them with access to our employee family assistance program, giving them access to free, confidential services on topics such as health and wellness, financial planning and mental health wellness and counselling.
Third, we supported our resident companies by waiving all venue occupancy fees from April to August, saving them nearly half a million dollars. While this meant revenue loss to Arts Commons, we have been able to recover just over $298,000 through the Canada emergency commercial rent assistance program.
Fourth, not only did we pay all artists the full value of the contracts that could not be fulfilled for the remainder of our season, but we hired more artists and technical support staff in the creation of new programs that allowed us to remain connected to our audiences in safe ways, while supporting local freelancers who were most impacted by the loss of opportunities in the gig economy.
I am proud of how Arts Commons has navigated this pandemic to date, and I am grateful to all orders of government for their support.
With that said, the ongoing effects of the pandemic are deteriorating our ability to generate any earned revenue during our current fiscal year. It is clear that we are running a marathon, when what we trained for was a sprint.
It is with this in mind that I humbly urge the committee to consider the following three things.
The first is to continue supporting organizations most impacted by ongoing closures through the continued extensions of programs such as the Canada emergency wage subsidy and the Canada emergency rent subsidy.
The second is to recognize, in the development of these programs, that not all businesses will resume at the same speed and to work closely with performing arts centres to create ongoing, sector-specific supports, as the timing for the reopening of our facilities remains unknown.
The third is to work closely with our organizations to reimagine a more sustainable future. In particular, Arts Commons recently announced the design phase of the Arts Commons transformation project, which would launch next year. Canada would be the first country to have a performing arts centre be designed since the pandemic started.
We have a wonderful commitment from our municipal and provincial governments, and we are looking for this committee's support as we continue discussions with the federal infrastructure minister.