Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. It's an honour to be speaking with you this afternoon.
As you may know, the Canadian Arts Coalition is a body of arts organizations across the country. It is non-partisan and collaborative and is made up of major arts organizations that are either service organizations or presenting organizations, and so on.
We had a number of concerns that we presented to you because we were really concerned about the way that COVID-19 has effectively upended the day-to-day life of Canadians and those around the world. We're particularly concerned about that in the arts, which obviously have been put on hold, as we heard just a little while ago from FAME.
We are concerned about how the arts and the broader Canadian society will rebound and how we need to work together to build a truly inclusive society, one in which the arts play a prominent role, as they have during these past few months, with many Canadians turning to the arts as a way to get through their days and to enjoy the moments they have while being in isolation or whatever it may be.
We're aware at the same time of the economic benefits of the arts, culture and sports. For example, we understand that in 2016 they contributed about $1.7 billion in our economy. You've heard already from FAME about issues with hotels and restaurants, and we would underscore that, but we also think it's really important in terms of our demography—in terms of indigenous peoples, persons who are deaf or disabled and the racialized populations—and how we build our sense of Canadians in this way.
To give you a sense of the recommendations that we've brought forward, we did a survey of our members and found a number of startling things that we put into the recommendations. In the recommendations you have in front of you, which were submitted back in June, there have been some changes.
Number one is that funds need to be dedicated to enable a safe, green reopening of arts venues and to encourage the public to return to the live arts. This is a challenge that we're going to face as people feel confident about going into rooms that are sizable and have more than, let's say, five, 10, 15 or 100 people.
Second, it's really important at this point in time to address some of the systemic issues, particularly issues around systemic racism in arts funding, by providing funds to ensure enhanced interim ongoing operational and project funding for indigenous, racialized, deaf and disabled, and community-based arts organizations.
Third, we feel it's really important to extend income support programs, including EI and CEWS and to begin to consider quite seriously a universal basic income.
Also, there really is an important aspect—FAME mentioned this earlier—about investment in digital technology, as that is the way many of the arts programs that are out there right now online are being presented to the public.
We were very happy when we saw that the economic statement yesterday addressed some of the issues that we put forward in our paper. We want to congratulate the government on these steps.
It's important that increasing the maximum wage subsidy rate to 75% be extended from the end of December on to March 13 of 2021.
Also important, as we see it—and we support it—is the providing of a top-up of $500 million to regional development agencies, as FAME mentioned, and community futures networks. Those bring in tourists, as we know, and the arts are rather critical to that. We have a great advantage, given the diversity of our arts programs that bring people in from around the world to see art by indigenous people, by people of colour and so on, and also in our regions across the country. Arts are very important here.
We are very pleased to see the addition of $181.5 million in the 2021-22 budget for the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canada Council for the Arts. The safeguard that we would wish to make clear is that those funds should also be used to ensure that there is an inclusive arts ecology, and that, for us, means paying particular attention to indigenous artists, artists of colour, the deaf and disabled, and small and regional arts organizations, as well as community-based arts organizations.
We think it's very important to work across the sectors and also to work across governments as they are beginning to look at how best they can marshal their energies to support the arts to come through this and into the future. Those are the concerns we bring forward to you. We want to see how our community can be included in terms of involvement and implementation, particularly our organization in the arts and other organizations, so that we can tailor this response.
We've been pleased to see that the recommendations we made to you back in early July, I think it was, are now becoming a reality. That's because of the attention the government is paying to people who are in the field, who have their finger on the pulse and who are able to channel that information to you so you can consider it. I think the expression is you're building it as you're flying. We're on that plane with you and we want to be able to construct as you move along as well.
I think that's what I really want to say this afternoon, other than that we look forward to remaining involved with the government as it moves forward on this timely matter to ensure that the arts are essential in Canadian lives and that the arts ecology is inclusive, as I have mentioned, and that it builds the social cohesion and identity of who we are as Canadians.
Thank you.