Evidence of meeting #42 for Canadian Heritage in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was funding.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Lisa Hepfner
Thank you, Mr. Diotte. Your time's up.
I'm going to pass the floor over to Mr. Ntumba for five minutes.
I understand you're sharing your time.
Liberal
Bienvenu-Olivier Ntumba Liberal Mont-Saint-Bruno—L’Acadie, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'll be sharing my time with Mr. Myles.
Canada is a richly diverse country, and I'm glad to see the witnesses we have with us.
Mr. Lariviere, as I was listening to you answer questions, I realized how much effort you had put into making your event inclusive, so that everyone could participate.
Our study today is about the state of creative and performance spaces across Canada. Those venues are struggling to fill seats because young people and other audiences aren't going. Often, a bar is set up nearby to attract more people.
What is the main thing you recommend we do to turn things around right away?
Director General, Théâtres associés, Conseil québécois du théâtre
As cultural institutions, we are economic drivers, places that welcome people, places where people gather, places where people find meaning.
We hear from our members about events and programming. Unfortunately, the hardest venues to fill these days are those that showcase complex questions about the world with the changing world order and so forth. It's really important for people to attend shows and have that shared experience.
Chair, Fédération culturelle canadienne-française
As far as the purpose of the committee's study goes, I would just add that artistic and cultural infrastructure is even more important because it provides places for people to come together, to experience a sense of community. To some extent, they've replaced churches as places where people gather, where they feel a sense of belonging, where they feel part of something bigger, where they feel included.
That's why our communities need these spaces, places that offer an array of activities that appeal to all kinds of people.
Liberal
David Myles Liberal Fredericton—Oromocto, NB
Thank you to the witnesses for being here today.
I want to ask a question I asked other witnesses at other meetings.
I wonder whether we define cultural spaces and cultural infrastructure broadly enough in Canada. Should we expand the definition to include spaces that are more experimental?
I don't know how it works in the provinces or in Canada, but this study is mainly about emerging artists and their need for accessible and affordable spaces where they can experiment and work on their art. I'd like to talk about that a bit.
You can go first, Ms. Juneau.
Chair, Fédération culturelle canadienne-française
Yes, absolutely. I believe we even talked about that in our presentation.
As minority language communities, we don't tend to satisfy number or area-based requirements, which are much better suited to other communities with larger populations. That's why artistic and cultural infrastructure supports need to be flexible. They need to take into account the realities of the different communities. I'm talking about French-Canadian and Acadian communities, but the same is true for all kinds of communities in Quebec's regions and remote regions across Canada. The challenge is the same. The struggle is the same.
My answer is yes, we need to broaden how we define cultural spaces. Presentation spaces in our communities tend to be located in community centres, which are shared by many organizations. Those presentation spaces aren't as well equipped; they don't always have the equipment or expertise needed to put on shows up to the standards of other venues. That, too, has to be taken into account. These are flexible spaces, so the program requirements should also be flexible.
Artistic Director, Ballet Vancouver
There's a lack of support for residency space to experiment.
For example, the theatre rental grant with Vancouver Civic Theatres predominantly supports the performance days. If you want artists to be experimental and to be able to produce innovative work, we need time in the spaces in which the work is going to be performed in order to feel the full creative vision of what could be possible. This could be support for something like Vancouver Civic Theatres to create a residency program or to offset that, or support for other venues in rural or regional areas to have residencies that then activate other communities, and it's a two-birds-with-one-stone situation—not that I advocate for violence against animals.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Lisa Hepfner
Thank you very much. That's all the time we have for today.
I appreciate all of our witnesses' being here and their excellent testimony today.
If there's anything you forgot to say or anything you didn't manage to get on the record, please send a letter to our committee via the clerk. It's information we can consider when our analysts put together our report on this study.
This concludes the testimony for this study. We really appreciate everything that you've brought to us today. Thank you.
The meeting is adjourned.