Very briefly, this is a sector that is quite key to the creative economy, and there are all sorts of studies that show that artist creation and creation in general are linked. It's a question of training, of people—the artist and cultural workers are an important part of the economy. In 2008 the Conference Board of Canada did a study that showed that directly and indirectly it represented over $84 billion, so it's an important part of the economy. It's important to invest in that sector in particular.
The other aspect, also because we're talking here about job growth and long-term prosperity, is that one of the upsides of the downsides of being an artist is that it doesn't cost much to create an artist job and to have a cumulative effect, a multiplier effect, because artists are not paid huge sums of money.
I remember the statistic—but I can't say exactly where the number came from—and it cost about $30,000 to $35,000 to create a job in the cultural sector. It costs something like $400,000 in heavy-industry and about $100,000 in middle-industry types of jobs.
If the strategy is to create as many jobs as possible, there shouldn't be cuts in the cultural sector. There should be investment.