Thank you very much.
My name is Howard Jang and I am of Chinese descent and a fourth-generation Canadian. I would like to take a moment to express my gratitude for the privilege of living and working on Salt Spring Island, the unceded ancestral territories of the Coast Salish First Nations people of Salt Spring and our surrounding areas.
Over the past 30 plus years I have dedicated my career to building the right environment for the artist and the arts to succeed. Recently I joined the community arts centre, ArtSpring, here on Salt Spring Island. Our cause sounds deceptively simple—to enrich lives and build communities through the arts—but the impact is great and the potential is enormous.
Prior to being with ArtSpring I was with the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, where our cause was to be a resource for the advancement of arts, culture and leadership—an artists-focused mandate. It showed me very clearly what environment was needed to support artists of all disciplines throughout their entire career. And, most recently, as executive director with the BC Alliance for Arts + Culture and board member for the Dancer Transition Resource Centre, for me the capacity and funding gaps were so obvious.
It would be an understatement to say that the past three years have been the most disruptive in modern history and continue to be. It is also widely understood that the arts and cultural sector will be one of the last that will begin to enter a recovery period.
In terms of recovery, we have been using the phrase for several months that there's “light at the end of the tunnel”, but I would certainly say that the light we see at the end of the tunnel is so different from the light we entered it on. With restrictions and mandates lifting we are now beginning to see a clearer picture of what our new world will look like.
Excuse the analogy, particularly here in British Columbia, but it feels like we have been hit by an earthquake and we are trying to rebuild from the ash and rubble. We know we must rebuild to become earthquake proof.
A comprehensive study released a couple of months ago in the U.K. entitled “‘Culture in crisis—Impacts of Covid-19 on the UK cultural sector and where we go from here” provided a comprehensive understanding of what the cultural sector is facing. “Culture in crisis” shares research findings from one of the world's largest investigations into the impacts of COVID-19 on the cultural industries. Over 15 months of research findings were shared in real time with policy-makers, and more widely so that the cultural sector policy and practice could be informed by evidence emerging from the project.
Here are three key findings.
For audiences, while the shift to digital transformed cultural experiences for those already engaged with cultural activities, it failed to diversify cultural audiences.
For the workforce, the cultural sector is undoubtedly at an inflection point and facing imminent burnout alongside significant skills and workforce gaps.
For organizations, in light of the pandemic and Black Lives Matter, many cultural organizations re-evaluated their purpose and their relevance to local communities, which was complemented by increased local engagement.
We need to rebuild with the goal of regrowth, re-emergence and sustainability.
Our most single pressing issue is how our current models of funding can respond to the changed needs of artists, audiences and communities as we move toward the new light of greater social, racial and environmental activism in our work and presentations. The arts hold up a mirror to our world while also pointing the way forward. Ford Foundation president, Darren Walker, said “the arts create empathy, and without empathy, you cannot have justice.”
You have asked us to talk about how the Status of the Artist Act has an impact on improving the basic working conditions of artists. As it relates to the Status of the Artist Act, the primary focus is on working conditions, and the definition of an artist in the act is as an independent contractor, in essence part of the gig economy. The act does not address basic needs.
This much we know. The gig worker was the most disrupted part of the economy due to COVID-19. If you were to ask an artist how much money they earned, they will tell you that in terms of monthly income, not annual income, because making ends meet is the most pressing issue.
The Canada emergency response benefit provided $2,000 per month in guaranteed income along with the Canada emergency wage subsidy, which subsidized employee wages for eligible businesses. The fact that the government was able to provide this emergency support so quickly and with few bureaucratic hurdles for applicants proves that what is often deemed impossible is actually not.
While CERB was the closest Canada has come to a federal basic income program, it still left many out and was dependent on meeting a previous employment threshold. Here's how one artist put it: “COVID is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I was in a position I had never been in before. I could make the work I wanted to make with no restrictions. The security put things in a different perspective.”
This is where basic income differs. Basic income programs are not tied to employment, and unlike welfare and disability assistance, they do not require constant monitoring to determine eligibility and deservedness. Recent examples in Ireland, Finland and New York state give me hope that providing basic income is good for the economy and well-being.