The current federal legislation covers very few directors. Although both status of the artist acts date back over 30 years, only 50% of artists manage to have RRSPs and insurance coverage through collective agreements.
The producers' associations say that many of the artists who work in subsidized productions aren't unionized. This means that the artists don't have a social safety net.
As it stands, the burden of negotiating with each producer is enormous. Artists' associations don't necessarily have the resources to do so. Since the grants come from public funds, we believe that they should be contingent on the producers giving the artists some basic conditions. The existence of these conditions should stem from the grants and shouldn't depend on the artists' associations.