Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Hello everyone.
Thank you for inviting us here to join your discussion today.
I am also joining you from the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people.
Canada's Status of the Artist Act arose out of the recognition of the fact that the path taken by artists is difficult. Despite the value of their work in our lives and in our society, many artists have to fight to get the income and working conditions they deserve.
The Act was adopted in 1992, but its origins go back to 1980, when UNESCO presented the Recommendation concerning the Status of the Artist, which recognizes the atypical ways artists earn their living and proposed measures that UNESCO member states could take to improve the socioeconomic situation of artists.
Canada's Status of the Artist Act is composed of two parts. Part I, which exposes a host of general provisions, falls under the purview of the Minister of Canadian Heritage. It serves as a pillar for part II of the Act, which sets out a framework to govern the professional relationships between artists and federally regulated producers. This second part is the responsibility of the Minister of Labour.
The general provisions in part I of the Act include a recognition of the important role artists play in our lives, our society and in our economy. What is more, they establish a link between this recognition and the importance for artists to receive compensation for the use of their works and to have a social status representative of their contribution to society. This recognition of the wealth that artists provide to the lives of Canadians and our collective responsibility to recognize and compensate these contributions fairly are at the heart not only of the Status of the Artist Act, but also of what we are working toward at the Department of Canadian Heritage.
The events of recent times have only heightened the importance of these objectives. There’s no getting around the devastation of the pandemic on the arts sector. We’ve heard from performing arts centres, theatre and dance companies, cultural hubs, arts training institutions, artist and technician unions and other partners since their world and ours came crashing down two years ago. We’ve seen the numbers. We know from labour force survey data that 2020 saw a 29% decrease in hours worked by self-employed artists—the lowest level on record. We know from our own survey, at the Department of Canadian Heritage, of Canadian artists and content creators that 62% have experienced a loss in income since the outbreak of COVID-19. We heard Sophie Prégent, president of Union des Artistes, report to this committee in February that 40% of that organization’s membership had considered or were still considering leaving their artistic careers in the long term.
These are times of unprecedented need. Throughout the pandemic, the department has worked hard to disburse funds to help keep the arts and culture organizations that hire and support artists afloat, and we know that these investments are having positive effects. The department recently conducted a survey of approximately 10,000 recipients of the $500-million COVID emergency support fund. More than three out of every four respondents, or 77%, indicated that the fund helped their organization remain in operation, and almost every respondent, or 95%, indicated that they were satisfied with the timeliness with which the funds were disbursed. We can also see that arts, culture and heritage sectors are starting to bounce back from the pandemic’s impacts. We can now focus our efforts on supporting the recovery of those sectors hardest hit by the pandemic through, for example, the recently launched $60-million performing arts workers resilience fund, which will deliver direct financial support and supportive programming to arts workers through the guilds, unions and associations that are closest to them.
Even though most workers and workplaces in the cultural sector are regulated by provincial or territorial labour laws, Canada's Status of the Artist Act remains an important tool in protecting the rights of artists through collective bargaining. What is more, it includes in its general provisions the crucial recognition of everything that artists contribute to our country. This is a tool that helps support artists and creators, but the primary goal is to ensure that artists are supported, that they receive fair compensation and that they are given the status they deserve in return.
Thank you.
Meegwetch.