Word For Word What The Budget Has To Say About Arts & Culture
The following is excerpted from Budget 2019, entitled Investing in the Middle Class.
By External Source
The following is excerpted from Budget 2019, entitled Investing in the Middle Class.
Support for Diversity, Culture and the Arts
Across the country, Canada’s artists and their supporters bring people together, to appreciate and celebrate the diversity and creativity that Canadians are known for the world over. Our cultural industries are also an important source of jobs—employing more than 650,000 Canadians—and are a key contributor to our economy, worth nearly $54 billion each year.
In recent years, the way that Canadians consume cultural content and news has shifted and changed. It’s important that Canadian producers of arts, culture and news are able to adapt to this changing reality and continue to tell our unique stories.
At the same time, rising intolerance and hateful rhetoric, in Canada and around the world, remind us that diversity and a welcoming spirit must be celebrated and nurtured as continued sources of strength for our country.
Offering stronger support for the arts, culture and diversity is one way that the Government—and Canadians—can work together to build a stronger country.
Expanding Support for Artists and Cultural Events
Whether through music, dance, theatre, visual arts or other forms of artistic expression, the arts bring Canadians together in a shared celebration of our history, traditions and cultural diversity, and are an important part of our economy.
With the growing importance of digital media today, Canadian artists—especially musicians and music entrepreneurs (e.g., producers, agents)—now face the challenge of marketing their content internationally and across all platforms, while also putting a greater emphasis on touring and live performances.
To address some of the challenges faced by Canadian musicians in the digital era, Budget 2019 proposes to provide $20 million over two years, starting in 2019–20, to the Canada Music Fund, so that the Fund can enhance its support for the production, promotion and distribution of Canadian music. With this investment, the Fund will be able to support more Canadian musicians and music entrepreneurs and help with the rising costs of marketing and promotion necessary in the music industry today.
For musical artists, these investments will create greater opportunities to innovate and experiment on a wider range of digital and non-digital platforms. This, combined with enhanced support for promotion—including more touring and more modern marketing approaches—will ensure that Canadian music reaches more audiences at home and abroad.
To support the production of more artistic events across the country, Budget 2019 also proposes to provide $16 million over two years, starting in 2019–20, to the Canada Arts Presentation Fund. This Fund supports not-for-profit professional performing arts organizations—including festivals and performing arts series—in all regions of the country, and provides targeted support for the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. This investment will provide support for professional festivals and performing arts series, as well as emerging arts presenters in underserved areas, and will help support the activities of the Confederation Centre of the Arts. Collectively, this will help bring the talents of Canada’s live performers to more communities across the country, giving more Canadians a chance to see, hear and celebrate Canadians’ talents.
To support more festivals, large-scale and community-based celebrations and commemoration initiatives, Budget 2019 proposes to provide $24 million over two years, starting in 2019–20, to the Building Communities Through Arts and Heritage Program and the Celebration and Commemoration Program. These types of events bring Canadians together, and help foster a stronger sense of connection between diverse Canadians—especially those from underserved and underrepresented communities—while underscoring our shared interests and values.
In addition, to further support Canadian Heritage’s efforts to integrate Gender-based Analysis plus (GBA+) in program design, Budget 2019 proposes to provide $1.0 million over two years, starting in 2019–20, to improve the collection of disaggregated data and strengthen reporting requirements for the above-mentioned programs in order to better support gender equality and diversity in funding allocations.
