Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My name is Tanya Gulliver, and I'm the president of the Professional Writers Association of Canada.
PWAC was established in 1976 and represents over 650 freelance writers and journalists across Canada.
In 1982 the Applebaum-Hébert report said that “the largest subsidy to the cultural life of Canada comes not from governments, corporations or other patrons, but from the artists themselves, through their unpaid or under paid labour”. Wages and fees for self-employed, freelance writers have remained static for close to 30 years. Creators in Canada annually contribute over $40 billion in economic activity. Canadian writers and artists, on average, make just over $20,000 per year, without the benefit of the safety net that others enjoy, including EI, extended health benefits, and retirement savings plans.
The creative community drives innovation, generating concepts and ideas that spread well beyond the entertainment and media clusters to influence science, industry, and public policy, to name a few.
PWAC would ask that the committee recognize the risks and extraordinary sacrifices made by the creative sector and consider the following changes to the Canadian Income Tax Act.
Reintroduce an income tax averaging system that allows artists to spread their tax burden over a period of at least five years, recognizing the fluctuation and unpredictability of income generated from self-employment in the arts. Creators should not be punished for their commitment to their crafts and their successes. Prior to 1982, income averaging was an option for all self-employed workers and was introduced on a provincial level in Quebec in 2004, where artists could spread out their earned income over seven years.
We would also recommend an increase in the basic personal exemption to at least $30,000. Similar measures are in place in the province of Quebec and in Europe, most notably Ireland, where there is a €250,000 exemption on income derived from creative output and where vital and successful creative workforces thrive. In 1995 Quebec introduced an exemption on an artist's first $15,000 in copyright royalties where the artist's income is under $30,000.
Our third recommendation is to extend EI and CPP benefits to all self-employed artists, to add incentives similar to the RESP top-up to encourage contributions to RRSPs, and to allow artists to deduct payments for extended health plans from their income tax. These are merely the typical benefits that an enlightened and progressive employer routinely provides to their employees. Self-employed artists are denied these benefits and security. We urge the Government of Canada to take on the role of an enlightened employer and support Canadian innovation and creativity.
As a further recommendation, PWAC would request that the ministries of finance, industry, and heritage commission and fund an in-depth study of the benefits and costs of tax reform for artists, such as those proposed herein. Long-standing models for such initiatives exist throughout Europe and in Quebec, and could be used to provide reliable data. PWAC would be willing to take a lead role in overseeing such a study in partnership with representatives from all artistic disciplines.
We thank you for allowing us the opportunity to voice our concerns and express our ideas. If Canada is to remain a leader in sustainable new technologies, we must actively support the imagination and entrepreneurship in which our artists excel.
Thank you.