CPAC Federal Election Debate on Culture To Be Streamed On Sept. 13
The debate will be moderated by Catherine Perrin and broadcast on CPAC's website and television channel. All main parties have confirmed their attendance, save the Greens who have yet to designate a representative.
By External Source
The Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (CDCE) and the Department of Communication of the Université de Montréal are organizing a debate on September 13 at noon on cultural issues in the context of the federal election.
The debate will be moderated by Catherine Perrin and broadcast on CPAC's website and television channel. Candidates Pascale St-Onge (Liberal Party), Steve Shanahan (Conservative Party), Martin Champoux (Bloc Québécois) and Alexandre Boulerice (NDP) have confirmed their attendance. The Green Party has been invited, but has not yet designated a representative.
The cultural sector has been among the hardest hit by Covid. All cultural sectors have experienced significant declines in operating revenues and labour expenditures. In fact, one in four people working in the sector lost their jobs in 2020.
This crisis will continue to have a significant impact on the sector in the years ahead and will require a commensurate policy response. Recall that the culture GDP exceeded $57 billion in 2019, or 2.7% of Canada's GDP, and employed more than 655,000 people in 2018, far ahead of the agriculture, resource extraction, oil and gas, utilities or automotive sectors. The health crisis has accelerated the digital transition, which has certainly allowed several activities to be maintained, but without allowing for profitability.
The topics of the debate are varied and will allow the different political parties to share with the public their commitments to adapting funding and support measures, as well as modernizing cultural policies (broadcasting, copyright), which were already largely unsuited to the context of digital broadcasting before the pandemic.
Over the past year and a half, there has been an increased awareness of how fundamental access to culture is to the well-being of individuals and the community. The organizers hope that this debate will bring the attention that this important sector deserves to the election campaign.
When
September 13, from 12:00 to 1:30 pm
Where
CPAC (television and web)
