Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I am Vice-President of the Quebec section of the Union des artistes. The UDA represents performing artists working in French. It currently has 11,400 active members and interns.
The UDA's mission is to identify, study, defend, and develop artists' economic, social, and moral interests. It currently manages more than forty collective agreements covering sectors such as advertising, cinema, recordings, dubbing, the stage, and television.
In 2001, the cultural sector employed 611,000 people, or 4.1% of the workforce, which is more than agriculture, forestry, mining, and the oil and gas industry combined. Its workforce is one of the most highly educated: 40% have a university degree, compared with 22% in the general population.
Economically speaking, Canadians spent $22.8 billion on cultural goods and services. Public funding to not-for-profit performing arts organizations generate tax revenues in the order of 176%.
We believe that the importance of culture for our economy and our identity is what encouraged the government of Canada and Quebec to ratify the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions and to promote it.
Those are good reasons for attaching significant importance to culture during prebudget consultations. However, the socio-economic conditions of performing artists in Canada in the sound recording, theatre, and audio visual fields have not progressed over the past 20 years. They stand out because of their inferiority in comparison with other category of workers.
The economic and cultural health of our country is however closely linked to the social economic health of our performing artists, which, in turn, is dependent upon their receiving full royalties for their artistic productions.
The time has come to at least recognized copyright, as Canada promised to do in 1997, by signing the World Performances and Phonograms Treaty, and to extend the notion of private copy to audio visual works.
To ensure a more profound impact on artists' incomes, tax measures such as an exemption from copyright revenues could be considered. Measures that are adapted to self-employed cultural workers must be put in place. The Employment Insurance Commission should be able to come up with creative ways of enabling self-employed artists to benefit from some form of income insurance.
The government must move as quickly as possible to double the budget for the Canada Council for the Arts and ensure that the substantial portion of the new funds go to artists. Funding must be increased for cinema, given its success here and abroad.
The government is however proposing $4 million in cuts to the Museums Assistance Program, under dubious pretexts, and a reduction of approximately $12 million to the Department of Foreign Affairs's Public Diplomacy Program which funds the international activities of university and cultural organizations.
The government is currently studying, considering, and wavering on providing assistance to cinema, at a time when it is hugely popular. If the government wants to meet its objective in terms of taxation, equal treatment, innovation, and common values, it must invest in culture and above all in artists.
Artists are leaders in promoting Canadian identity throughout the world. They are better than anyone else at saying who we are, what space is ours and how we inhabit it. It is time for the government to recognize this contribution and to enthusiastically support these embassadors.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.