Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to the committee for undertaking this study of the Status of the Artist Act and its impact on improving basic working conditions for artists.
Jacoba Knaapen and I are here as volunteer members of the Canadian Arts Coalition, which is a coalition of artists and arts organizations that first came together in 2005 as a non-partisan advocacy movement of volunteers and that has been advocating for the arts and culture sector ever since.
The world has changed a lot in the past 20 years, since the act came into being, and the basic working conditions of artists have been impacted by those changes. While the act has made a big difference to the way artists and producers work together and how associations have been able to represent groups of like-minded individual creative cultural workers, the landscape of artists' work has changed tremendously. It also became clear in the past two years that there are other concerns that need to be addressed to improve the working conditions of Canadian artists.
The first is the nature of employment. The fact is that most artists are self-employed. What became clear during the pandemic was the inadequacy of our employment income program to serve the self-employed. The mixed employment realities of self-employed creative workers mean that some may be traditionally employed part time while having a self-employed contract, and can also go through ebbs and flows of income regarding the seasonality of work.
As the government looks to modernize the employment income program, the coalition hopes that the realities of self-employed creative artists will be considered in shaping that program. For example, self-employed artists do not have an employer to pay into the system. This will need to be considered. As well, while some artists can enrol in an opt-in benefit program, many cannot afford to do so. Government, employers and the self-employed individual should all contribute to the self-employed benefit.
If the new program is designed as an opt-in program, self-employed workers can terminate their enrolment when they change careers. Consider that the average income and hours of the self-employed creative worker will have spikes and dips between weeks, months and years. These fluctuating levels will have to be considered when determining insurable hours and eligible income. We suggest that this program be available to those demonstrating a modest level of prior income and be available without prior contribution to the program.