I thank my colleague for the question.
Since the pandemic, unfortunately, people are glued to their screens more than ever. One of the sectors that suffered the most during the pandemic was the performing arts. Obviously, we’re talking about theatre, festivals or music. I won’t talk about all the investments we made during the pandemic to support those sectors, which were practically shut down, but I’ll give you a few numbers.
The government added $32 million to the Canada Music Fund. This will help artists perform throughout Canada and create new musical worlds.
The government also invested over $31 million over two years to support festivals, big and small, across the country. Once again, we know that these are ways for people to find and discover our creators.
It’s important to bring people back to real physical places, and not just let them be captivated by screens.
Those are therefore a few of the choices we made to support theatre, music and the festival sector.