Good afternoon. Thank you for the honour of inviting me to testify before you on behalf of the arts, cultural industries and heritage institutions from coast to coast.
My name is Alain Pineau, national director of the Canadian Conference of the Arts, which was created in 1945 by, among others, members of the Group of Seven. The CCA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization composed of members representing nearly 400,000 professionals in the arts, culture and heritage throughout the country. The perspectives that the CCA brings to questions of cultural policy are broad and long term. The unique contribution that CCA brings to public debate has been recognized by 46 years of financial support from the federal government.
The abolition of the Canadian Artists and Producers Professional Relations Tribunal and the transfer of its functions to the Canadian Industrial Relation Board is one of many amendment to other acts found in Bill C-38.
The Tribunal was created in 1993 under the Status of the Artist Act. That act governs professional relations, that is, labour relations, between self-employed artists and the producers who retain their services. It grants the exclusive right to negotiate scale agreements with producers. A scale agreement specifies the minimum terms and conditions under which producers engage the services of, or commission works from, self-employed artists in a specified sector.
Some of our members were concerned that the Canada Industrial Relations Board may not understand artists' issues and unique working conditions. We were comforted on Monday night when we heard heritage officials confirm that some of the tribunal expertise will be moving to the board and that decisions will be based on the Status of the Artist Act and on jurisprudence accumulated since the creation of the tribunal.
Maintaining the Status of the Artist Act as a basis for decision is what matters; whether the CIRB or the current tribunal decides on issues should not matter all that much. I will note that Quebec has taken a similar path in the administration of its own status of the artist legislation, and without any negative repercussions.
To sum up, given the guarantees provided by the government, this specific aspect of Bill C-38 is not of major concern.
This said, within the time allotted to me I would be remiss not to use this unique opportunity to raise areas of greater concern in the budget.
Like so many others, we rejoice in the fact that the parliamentary appropriations to the Canada Council have been spared. The CCA is a strong protagonist of the importance—for our economy, our quality of life, and our international reputation—of investing in artists and creators.
This being said, a reality check shows that, in constant dollars, parliamentary appropriations to the Canada Council on a per capita basis have actually declined somewhat between 1990 and 2010. Obviously, given this renewable and non-polluting resource, we need to make more efforts if we don't want to miss opportunities to invest in Canadian creativity.
Cuts in the audiovisual sector will have repercussions on the whole production sector in Canada. These cuts have many people, including the Quebec Minister of Finance, worried about the impact on the ecology of the system. Cutting 10% to Telefilm Canada, the NFB and the CBC's budgets, not to mention the cumulative effects of past restrictions not yet absorbed, means breaking the balance between creation, public money and private investments. These public funds are often used for productions and for research and development that cannot rely on private money. We also emphasize that documentary filmmaking, a genre for which Canada has earned an international reputation, is particularly at risk.
There is reason to rejoice in the fact that the budgets of the national museums were also spared, but the cuts to Library and Archives are major and widespread. Daniel Caron, librarian and archivist of Library and Archives Canada, is quoted today as saying that “the new environment is totally decentralized and our monopoly as stewards of the national documentary heritage is over”. This is troubling.
Archivists, a group not particularly prone to terrorism, have risen in protest to defend the budget of $1.7 million for the national archival development program, which is very important for future historians and researchers. It is ironic that as we celebrate the War of 1812, a founding moment of our history too long neglected, and as we prepare to celebrate the 150th anniversary of our country, we have to fight such small battles in the fields of history.
Several other budget cuts will jeopardize the strength of a complex sector that is so important in the knowledge and creativity economy. I will mention just a few: severe cuts to Statistics Canada, where the last remains of the culture statistics unit, which was formerly highly regarded internationally, are disappearing; the elimination of the Cultural Human Resources Council and the abandonment of its programs; and cuts to the Canadian Music Fund that will weaken an industry that has already been undermined.
Dear members of Parliament, I thank you for your attention. I will be happy to answer any question.