Good afternoon, everyone.
Festivals and Major Events Canada (FAME) and the Regroupement des événements majeurs internationaux (RÉMI) represent over 500 festivals and events in Canada.
We were very pleased with the last budget. At that time, we thought that the COVID‑19 nightmare was about to come to an end and financial assistance would help repair the damage done. And yet, a year later, here we are again asking you to support our sector.
The major festivals and events support initiative, the new program with a budget of $200 million administered by the regional economic development agencies, is not entirely living up to what it promised to be. I can say more about that, if you wish, during our discussion.
As for Canadian Heritage, what I can say is there has been a great deal of confusion on the ground, and that remains the case to this day.
Many of our members also feel there have been injustices, or at least a lack of understanding. The government chose to support major festivals with the initiative I just mentioned. They chose to entrust Canadian Heritage with everything else, that is, all events generating under $10 million in annual revenue. That means that the initiative supports about 25 events and over 1,000 events are supported by Canadian Heritage, where together they can rely on much less than $200 million. That's pretty lopsided, to say the least. It is not that the initiative has too much money. There is quite simply not enough money at Canadian Heritage.
The fact is, the $200 million announced for local festivals also goes to funding cultural community events and organizations, such as open-air theatre, heritage celebrations, local museums, amateur sporting events and much more according to the budget itself. At the end of the day, very little is left over for festivals and events relative to their needs, relative to the scale of the disaster in our sector and relative to the number of festivals and events.
To distribute the money in the budget, Canadian Heritage chose to set up a recovery fund and a reopening fund. Ten months after the budget was tabled, the reopening fund included in the Canada arts presentation fund remains inaccessible. We're talking about $25 million. Festivals still have no idea what they will be able to submit or when, and it's four or five months from the beginning of the season, and almost a year after the budget. At best, they will not get any answers until right before their event, if not during or even after the event, given the slow pace. That's unacceptable.
No one saw omicron coming. Will we really be able to resume our events this summer and go back to our business models? In any case, FAME believes that assistance programs should be extended, with prorated budgets. That's our general philosophy and it applies to the funds I just mentioned, all those emanating from Bill C‑2 and all the rest.
This past July, I issued recommendations to the Standing Committee on Finance for getting the sector back on track, because we were hoping to start doing that. I will repeat those recommendations for you. In a nutshell, the idea would be to settle funding for festivals and events once and for all by making the 2019 investments permanent, renewing them every year for now until 2024 and, yes, once again injecting a little money.
In general, and this was true even before the COVID‑19 pandemic, I have to say things are not going that well in our sector. Although in 2019 the government reinvested 25 to 40% in the two programs benefiting festivals, some of our members are calling us these days to say they are getting less than they were in 2018.
I also feel that Economic Development Canada and the agencies need to launch a complementary program to support events and festivals based on their contribution to tourism and the economy, specifically Canadian festivals and events that are not cultural in nature and do not receive support from Canadian Heritage. That would require $25 million a year. An entire category of festivals that get no support right now are suffering. The COVID‑19 pandemic has reminded us just how vulnerable they are. Our friends at the Canadian Association of Fairs and Exhibitions (CAFE) also support our request.
In closing, I would add that festivals and events saw their own-source revenue drop 89% in the first year of the crisis. Government assistance is their lifeline to retaining their teams and mounting shows during this difficult period. If we want to have festivals and events after this pandemic, we must act now, listen to what's being said on the ground and hear from associations like FAME. People are in distress. I will end with a few words an organizer wrote to me a few days ago: “I'm discouraged, frustrated and at the end of my rope.”
Thank you.