Good afternoon.
I thank you for having invited the Canada Council for the Arts to take part in your consultations.
As you know, the council is an autonomous arm's length Crown corporation whose mandate is to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts. It is active regionally, nationally and internationally.
There is no need today to list all of our achievements of the past 60 years. The vitality and diversity of the Canadian artistic scene bears witness to that, as does the recognition it has garnered. The Canada Council for the Arts has a proactive attitude and is committed to innovating to respond to demographic, economic, technological and social change. This means that we choose to direct our investments toward the two great natural and inexhaustible resources of innovation and creation.
Eighteen months ago, the council began a major transformation. We made the decision to scale up our impact for artists, arts organizations, the general public, and our current and potential partners to better fulfill our mandate.
Our transformation is designed to be results-based. Over the past year, the council has undertaken numerous consultations and it puts us in a position today to deliver a strong and effective model for funding and supporting the arts.
The first steps in the ongoing transformation are to implement: first, an overall way of operating that focuses on maximizing our impact; second, a new model for program and service delivery; third, improved productivity in the workforce and improved knowledge sharing; and fourth, a new five-year strategic plan. The core of this transformation, our new funding model with its six programs, is simple, flexible, responsive to change, and results-based. Our strategic plan will be released in April 2016. All of the components of the transformation will be operational as of April 2017.
We have been transparent in sharing our improvements on traditional and social media, and reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. We are looking to increase our impact immediately and for the future, and we are acting quickly and strategically in several ways.
For example, our new program dedicated to indigenous arts and cultures is designed with an entirely indigenous perspective. This long-standing priority has been made a policy instrument.
Our new funding model gives the organizations we support the responsibility for reflecting the diversity of their community, practising equity, and supporting linguistic duality. The flexibility of the model responds to the realities of new generations and youth. Our new program dedicated to international activities will consolidate the cultural presence of Canada on international markets.
The economy is difficult to predict, because of globalization in particular. Innovation and creation are essential resources to create a solid and ever-renewed economy. Internationally, many countries have placed culture and the arts at the heart of their economic development. The benefits of that choice are many—financial, social, educational and human.
The cultural sector provides 624,500 jobs. That represents 3.7% of all jobs in Canada. Culture and the arts contribute $47.7 billion to our gross domestic product, according to the Canadian Culture Satellite Account of 2015.
The arts sector, which we support directly, is an essential driver of our cultural industries and of the broad cultural sector, since that is where the talents, knowledge, innovation and content without which the cultural economy would be idle, are largely developed.
The arts and artists must be included in the discussions that determine our present and future since they stimulate the imagination, creation, and innovation that are necessary to our well-being and our sustainable development.
The Canada Council is ready to invest in the economy of the future, an economy based on rich diversity and creativity, an economy supported by the intelligence, skills, and engagement of Canada's artists and all citizens.
Thank you.