Thank you.
Madam Chair and members of the committee, allow me to begin with the words once spoken by Herménégilde Chiasson, the celebrated Acadian poet, playwright, filmmaker and former lieutenant governor of New Brunswick:
To be an artist is to have the courage to invent a world of one's own and to make sure that one can give it to others with generosity, without knowing if what one does will interest anyone, without knowing if [someone] somewhere, someday... will cast another look and will come to us to tell us that the world resembles the one we have imagined, the one we have painted, printed, sculpted, photographed, modelled or drawn.
These words resonate with the reality of many artists and cultural workers in the Canadian and Acadian francophonie, who take risks on a daily basis while practising their craft. In fact, the major gaps in the social safety net for our sector condemn them to courage on a daily basis. Their socio-economic situation is first and foremost a real systemic issue exacerbated by the pandemic.
Still today, professional artists rarely have access to professional development, employment insurance, workers' compensation, pension plans or other comparable social programs that other professionals enjoy. In addition, artistic work often involves a considerable amount of work that is unaccounted for and unrecognized, known as invisible work.
In addition to this reality is the intermittent nature of artistic employment, which exposes our artists to significant financial risk, discontinuous work and precariousness evoking a truth: our artists and cultural workers do not currently enjoy equitable access to the Canadian social safety net, despite the essential role they play in the Canadian economy, and even more so in our francophone minority communities.
The assistant director general for culture at UNESCO reminded us of this, right in the middle of the crisis:
Culture has brought us together, keeping us connected and shortening the distance between us. It has provided comfort... at a time of enormous anxiety and uncertainty.
The WHO also confirmed in 2019 that the arts play a cardinal role in the health and well-being of societies, communities and individuals. It is here that the words of Gabrielle Roy take on their full meaning: “Could we ever know each other in the slightest without the arts?”
A paradigm shift is needed. We need to be more sensitive to the realities of all Canadian workers and leave no one behind. Artists, artisans and cultural workers in Canada's francophone communities are an essential socio-economic component of the vitality and sustainable development of francophone minority communities. The precariousness of our artists and cultural workers, which has been confirmed and amplified by the pandemic, must be eliminated. Consequently, they must also be protected by an adequate social safety net.
It is impossible to talk about a viable economic recovery in Canada without talking about our workers. In the Canadian and Acadian francophonie alone, our sector employs over 26,000 people and generates over $1 billion in revenue annually. The implementation of fair protection measures is also in line with Canada's international commitments, including UNESCO agreements on the status of the artist.