Canadian Heritage committee  Finally, the long-standing and painful truth is that those who contribute the most to the arts and culture sector and who are the lifeblood of this $53.1-billion industry, the artists, are paid the least for their contributions. The Canadian Arts Coalition asks for support for

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Sarah. Thank you, Madam Chair and members of this committee. Another issue for artists is space. We all know that our cities are becoming less affordable. Housing is a top priority, but those who create art face a severe shortage of other kinds of space—affordable an

Canadian Heritage committee  The Government of Canada's commitment to a full recovery for the arts and culture sector is deeply appreciated. I want to mention one of the tools. One of the instruments we can leverage that's critical to our recovery is the box office refund, potentially being able to rebuild s

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you. I think paying the bills and enjoying a reasonable standard of living are universal hoped-for outcomes in any career pursuit. Our request for support of a universal basic income or a basic income guarantee is really important in terms of being able to level the playin

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm going to say a bunch of acronyms. Thank you for CWLB, CERB, THRP and for the newly announced CPAWRF, which is the resilience fund. Injecting additional recovery dollars into Canadian Heritage and the Canada Council, similar to what was provided in the fall of 2020 and the s

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you so much for the question, MP Coteau. It's a good question. In Toronto, the challenges that our members were facing due to the pandemic were triplefold. We were dealing—and continue to deal—with very expensive housing and venue costs. The affordability to continue opera

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Sarah. Our membership, representing professional theatre, dance and opera companies, now numbers only 107, which in itself tells how difficult it has been for arts organizations to hang on and to get through this period of closures, unemployment and audience hesitancy