Finance committee  We have not heard back from the minister. The last budget included the extension, until 2026, of one of the two programs I was talking about, the Building Communities through Arts and Heritage Program. However, there was a deafening silence, not a word in the budget, about the o

Finance committee  I think that you're raising some good points. Lack of predictability is a real problem. Festivals and events are a cultural subsector I know well. Festivals that received letters from Canadian Heritage in May or June, a few weeks before their event, were able to see the extent o

Finance committee  Thank you, sir. The question you are asking is a broad one. I would like to point out to the committee that your riding is home to the largest classical music festival in Canada, the Festival de Lanaudière. Sometimes we even see each other in Joliette. The problem right now is

Finance committee  Thank you, members of the committee. Good morning. My remarks will be bilingual, so I invite you to use your earpiece. My name is Martin Roy and I'm Executive Director of Festivals and Major Events Canada, which goes by the acronym FAME and represents over 500 festivals and eve

Finance committee  This issue is subject to different debates and different approaches. At the start of the pandemic, we were very cautious and we obviously wanted our activities to be as safe as possible. At this point, we know that studies have been conducted on this issue. Recently, researchers

Finance committee  In an ideal world, this summer we would be back up and running at full capacity. This would reduce the need to seek funding from the government or public money to make up for our loss of revenue. I agree. At this point, all festival and event organizers in Canada also need some

Finance committee  Thank you.

Finance committee  I would first like to reiterate, in relation to your previous question, that we are still waiting for the money that was announced in the budget almost a year ago. This is fundamental. You can make all sorts of announcements, but if at the end of the day, the money has not been p

Finance committee  First of all, I would like to make a distinction between COVID‑19-related programs and regular programs. The problem we are currently experiencing is with the Major Festivals and Events Support Initiative, which has been voted and is very ad hoc and focused on reviving the festiv

Finance committee  Yes, of course. In general, the problem at the moment is the approach or philosophy of the federal government, which views festivals and events first and foremost as cultural events. In many cases these festivals are indeed cultural events, but not always. The real common denom

Finance committee  Absolutely. Originally the program was supposed to last two years, but actually it took almost a year to set up and six or eight months for responses to be provided. So for events and festivals, there is only one edition left. What we are asking you to do is to extend the progr

Finance committee  Of course. The budget contained assistance for the large festivals, on the one hand, and there was other assistance for the smaller events from Canadian Heritage. At that time, the budget did not provide a definition of a large festival or a small festival. It took a few months

Finance committee  Thank you.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Ste-Marie. I'll give you some figures. In the first year of the pandemic, the turnover of REMI members, the Regroupement des événements majeurs internationaux, in Quebec, fell by 68%. Our self-generated revenues come from tickets, food and beverage sales and priva

Finance committee  Good morning, everyone. FAME, the Festivals and Major Events Canada coalition, and the Regroupement des événements majeurs internationaux, or REMI, represent over 500 festivals and events in Canada. We rejoiced greatly when the 2021-2022 budget was tabled; we believed that the