Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to be here on behalf of the Banff World Media Festival. We are enthusiastic about the government's creative and export-focused goals, and we appreciate the opportunity to take part in these consultations for the 2019 federal budget.
Today, I'm going to share the broad strokes of our recommendations. The specifics are contained in our pre-budget submission, which has been provided to committee members.
The conclusion this week of the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement has placed the importance of trade and export at the centre of our national conversations. Secure, predictable access to international markets is vital to Canadian prosperity. Canada needs modern, secure trade frameworks such as the USMCA to ensure that exporters from all sectors can bring their products to global markets.
Canada needs to be sure that, as a nation, we are marshalling all of our strengths in smart ways to maximize the chances for Canadian success in the world. Put simply, the business opportunities are expanding everywhere. Canadian content producers and screen media businesses need to be able to do business anywhere, both at home and abroad.
That is what Banff is about. Canada's broadcasting media and cultural industries contribute $48 billion annually to the economy. They are a high-energy pipeline for innovation, middle-class jobs, exports and economic stimulus. The government has recognized this importance with the commitment to overhaul Canada's digital content regime. Moreover, it has rolled out a bold, innovative creative export strategy to give Canadian artists and creators support that is commensurate with the acknowledged high quality of their output, as well as rapidly expanding global opportunities to do business.
Banff is in a unique position to assist the federal government in the pursuit of these economic goals. Over 39 years, Banff, a not-for-profit entity, has grown into Canada's largest media B2B marketplace, connecting our domestic industry to global partners.
In addition to our annual flagship festival each June, Banff has become a year-round endeavour, with three additional events in Toronto, Los Angeles and the United Kingdom, with an online global networking platform called BanffXchange, and with an international program competition, in which more than 40 countries participate every year.
Banff has a proven record of success at bringing far-flung production partners together and getting new projects greenlighted, both at home and abroad. As we like to say, Banff brings the world to Canada. To expand on the government's recent creative export strategy announcement, it's not only abroad “where the business relationships are being built, the deals are being made, and the jobs are being created” for the creative sector.
Export success is also being generated at scale right here in Canada, through Banff. Banff delegates annually advance or sell $1.7 billion worth of deals in an environment of business-to-business interactions in Canadian culture, which results in Canadian culture being exported. This is the modern export model, and it's about doing business everywhere.
Through our diversity of voices initiative, we're providing indigenous, francophone and women professionals with the opportunity to gain essential industry access and training. In our first year, 88 emerging and established creators and producers took part in the wider program, and a select 25 took part in an intensified pitch program, where they also received individual mentorship from media leaders and private pitch and facilitated meetings with international buyers at the festival.
The benefits of this initiative are threefold: It provides essential training and access for under-represented groups; it supports the creation of new cultural media projects that represent diverse viewpoints; it has a meaningful economic impact as the impetus for new projects to be financed, produced and exported internationally.
To launch the program in 2018, we received valuable support from the Canada Media Fund, the Indigenous Screen Office, the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles, and Netflix. We believe the diversity of voices initiative has successfully proven that we can provide strong, immediate impact that gives practical, hands-on experience and business opportunities of unmatched value to participants.
It amplifies the federal government's aims to support artistic and cultural activity by francophone, indigenous, and women creators and producers. It also gives them important support in acquiring the connections they need to break into the export market, a goal that meshes with federal policies.
Banff is about redefining the concept of export competitiveness to include not only outreach abroad, but also the power to convene the global B2B marketplace right here in Canada. We are committed to working with the federal government to move Canada's creative output to a new, higher level.
However, predictability is vital to growth. Stable and adequate funding is needed to achieve these important objectives. To that end, Banff would like to make the following recommendations:
Recommendation one is to provide stable and adequate funding to support Canada's export-focused creators and cultural entrepreneurs.
Recommendation two is to ensure that the creative export strategy captures the powerful synergies of the B2B marketplace, both at home and abroad.
Recommendation three is to expand the government's partnership with Banff, with an investment of $1 million per year for three years for our diversity of voices initiative.
Thank you for the opportunity to take part in this pre-budget consultation. I now invite questions from the committee.