Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for inviting us.
My name is Lorraine Hébert and I represent the Regroupement québécois de la danse. This morning, I am speaking on behalf of the Mouvement pour les arts et les lettres, which represents eight national and thirteen regional organizations, and this includes over 15,000 artists and workers in the cultural sector of Quebec.
In the fall of 2006, we asked for exactly the same thing we are asking for this year. Indeed, we asked specifically that the annual budget of the Canada Council for the Arts be increased to $300 million. To which you might say that last year, that is, in July 2007, Minister Bev Oda announced $30 million in ongoing funding for fiscal 2008-2009. We therefore felt that last year, our message was heard.
The reason we are before you again today is to ask you to continue to make the Department of Finance and the Department of Canadian Heritage aware that artists need public funding to respect and support standards of excellence, to consolidate existing organizations, and to help develop new artists in every field of endeavour. Today, the arts sector is being squeezed, and young artists cannot break through, and don't have the means to do so.
We are dealing with a problem of generational in equity, and with the fact that funding is not spread fairly throughout Canada. We are facing a very though challenge from our international competitors, despite the fact that we have extraordinary artists everywhere in Canada.
We have an institution, the Canada Council for the Arts, which was created over 50 years ago and which, year after year, funds Canadian artists in a transparent manner. Since 2006, the Council estimates that with a budget of less than some $300 million, it will not be able to meet the demand, which has been growing since 1998. The Council will not be able to help our large institutions consolidate, and it will not be able to help young artists break through in every area of artistic endeavour in Canada.
I will end my presentation here. Thank you.