Thank you very much to the chairman and to all members of the committee for allowing me an opportunity to speak to you about self-employed artists making registered pension plan contributions.
My name is Paul Sharpe. I am a 55-year-old musician who has been a member of the AF of M in Canada for 40 years, and have practised as a full-time musician for approximately 38 of those 40 years. Throughout that time, I had no eligibility to enlist in a wonderful fund called AFM-EPW Fund (Canada), a registered pension plan that is of course, by its nature, under federal jurisdiction. I would only be eligible under an employee-employer relationship, and only rarely over my 38 years of performance did I enjoy that situation. That opportunity might have come through working with the CBC or as a studio musician by the session, but most of my gigs were for corporations, weddings, casinos, clubs, parties, etc., all freelance, self-employed work. I therefore feel very qualified to speak on the subject of asking that the Income Tax Act and the regulations thereto be amended to allow self-employed artists to participate, or to participate in RPPs.
Self-employment in Canada in all sectors, but particularly in the cultural sector, is on the rise and continues to be. This is a subject that I really urge you to consider, first, because it's something we can do that we don't believe entails a cost to the government. Secondly, we need to modernize the way this particular sector in Canada is engaged in the market.
What the impact on myself and generations after me would be only became apparent to me when I became employed by the AF of M. Every paycheque that I get now shows that there is a contribution made on my behalf, but up until then, 38 years of working, did not vest me in a pension plan.
This is something that, in my capacity as director of freelance services of 13,000 members of the AF of M in Canada, I would like to see made available. Our members are distributed among 28 local associations throughout Canada in each and every province and territory. They very, very much need to plan better for their retirement. This is something the government can do to assist them to improve their retirement life. Speaking with those freelance musicians across the country as I travel, there is a lot of support for this. We hope you will support it.
Once again, I thank you for the opportunity to address you. We believe this is a no-cost situation to the government, and because this is my second trip before this esteemed committee in two years, we hope we can work together to get the job done this time. Thank you very much.