Keynote luncheon speech at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce
Calgary, Alberta
November 13, 2009
Good morning. And thank you for that kind introduction.
I note that my provincial counterpart is here with us today. The MLA for Calgary-North West and the Minister of Culture and Community Spirit, Mr. Lindsay Blackett. It is always good to see you.
It's great to be here in Calgary - home of the 24th annual Gemini Awards tomorrow night - to speak to you about Canada's creative economy.
I'd like to start with a quick presentation outlining what Canada's creative economy is.
PRESENTATION PLAYS 3-4 minutes
The cultural sector has an impact on every province and territory in Canada, and on communities of all sizes.
Canada has a wealth of creative, artistic individuals throughout the country ... from the Arctic to the Prairies, and from Port Moody to Bonavista.
Their work challenges us, reflects the world we live in, and is an important part of our rich heritage: our aboriginal beginnings, our French, English, and Acadian roots, and our contemporary multicultural diversity.
On top of this, arts and culture has a tremendous impact on our economy.
As was shown in the slides, the Conference Board of Canada estimates that in 2007, the cultural sector had an economic impact of about $46 billion. That's almost 4% of our GDP. The sector also supported more than 650,000 jobs across Canada.
At three times the size of Canada's insurance industry, and twice the size of our forestry industry, the economic importance of arts and culture cannot be overlooked, and should be highlighted as a reason for strong and sustained investment.
Supporting the arts is important for our economic recovery.
The people of Calgary understand the importance of a dynamic arts community. According to a Stats Canada survey of consumer expenditures on culture, Calgarians have the third-highest level of culture spending per capita, only slightly behind Ottawa and Victoria ... both capital cities.
You support local dance, orchestra, and live theatre. You also support local arts schools, including the Alberta College of Art and Design, which is highly respected internationally.
You are also the biggest movie-goers in Canada, and some of Canada's most voracious readers.
You have a lively cultural sector that makes your city a great place to live and work. And I would go one step further: Calgary's arts community helps attract and retain the kind of enterprising and energetic individuals who make this city the success it is.
I want to thank the Calgary Chamber of Commerce for providing me with this opportunity to discuss what our Government has done for arts and culture in Canada, and to outline where we intend to go.
Let me start with a pretty broad statement: there has never been a better time to be alive than right now. Never have we had more choices. Never have we had more opportunity.
Never have we had more technological conveniences, and never have there been more opportunities for those working in the creative economy.
So what is the creative economy?
Pulitzer Prize-winning author George Will once brilliantly and simplistically described it.
Will, who turns 68 this year, still writes his columns in long-hand using a Mont Blanc pen.
In an interview, he once described how he writes: he takes a sheet of paper and pen, draws ink into his pen, and with the strokes of his hand and intent of his intellect, he physically creates a paragraph, and then another, and an argument is formed into a column.
He then presents his creation and arguments to the world, who will agree, disagree, respond, refute, praise, and thereby, contribute to the social and intellectual capital of our society.
Two instruments, a pen and paper, brought to life to create something from nothing, for economic and social gain: the very definition of capitalism and wealth creation.
THIS is the creative economy.
So what should Government do?
What can we do?
I have been the Minister responsible for Canadian Heritage for about a year now, and in everything I do, I seek the best ways to help and support Canada's remarkably strong and diverse creative economy.
Through technological change, we're seeing more and more Canadians accessing the Internet through personal devices ... watching what they want, when they want. The CBC's iPhone application is currently the most popular application in the news category on iTunes, and number three overall.
We saw the proliferation of podcasts ... YouTube ... Facebook ... and Twitter.
We saw Canadians consuming more media than ever before, often on mechanisms that didn't exist just a few years ago.
We also saw the impact this had on traditional businesses.
Technologically speaking, the pace of change is incredible. What was cutting-edge technology just a couple of years ago quickly becomes mainstream.
All of this has had implications for arts and culture, and how our Government supports the creative sector.
Over the last year, we've been charting a course that will allow our creative industries to navigate the changing landscape.
In doing this, we've focused on the needs of Canadians as creators, consumers, and citizens. And we will continue to do so.
I'm committed to working with our creative industries to ensure that they have what they need to take advantage of the unparalleled opportunities the digital revolution brings with it.
Creators need the right environment ... conditions that support their work in building new, innovative products and services on all platforms. They need the right tools to compete in global markets and build new business models.
That's why our Government recently revamped several programs to assist the industry in a time of change. Of course, we continue to support traditional business models where it makes sense. But we also want to encourage the sector to take advantage of emerging platforms.
For instance, the Canada Media Fund is a merger of two former programs. This innovative, public-private partnership will support a more effective and modern approach to the production of Canadian content and help make it available on multiple platforms. Next year alone, the fund will provide $310 million for that very purpose.
We also recently announced funding for programs that support Canadian periodicals, books, and music. Access to these products continues to matter to Canadians ... whether we're talking about traditional magazine subscriptions and books, or content that is consumed on an iPhone or an e-reader.
We've made changes to our arts programs to ensure continued access for Canadians. At the same time, the changes we've made will help our cultural industries compete on digital platforms and in international markets.
And, we announced the new Canada Interactive Fund to help Aboriginal, ethnocultural, official-language minority and other not-for-profit cultural organizations take advantage of the latest interactive media tools. The fund will help these cultural groups create new forms of online content and applications.
At the same time, through the Cultural Development Fund, we're supporting and strengthening the arts, culture, and heritage in minority Anglophone and Francophone communities. This fund is enabling Canadians throughout the country to become better acquainted with the diversity and vitality of the cultural scene in official-language minority communities.
As well, we've established the Place de la francophonie to ensure the presence of French Canada during the 2010 Winter Games. The Place de la francophonie will offer a wide range of activities including performances, theme celebrations, and organized events. It will also be an official site for the Cultural Olympiad.
Our Government is also working to ensure that our legislative and regulatory approach is conducive to supporting these businesses.
We want to ensure that Canadian businesses are equipped to deal with the challenges posed, and take advantage of the opportunities offered, by the digital revolution - intellectual property and new means of consumption and distribution.
This past summer, we held nation-wide consultations on Canada's copyright legislation. In doing so, we embraced technology so that as many people as possible could access our consultative process. The results were truly impressive:
- 8,155 submissions
- 2,500 comments
- and 1,000 participants, both in person and via webcasts, at Town Halls and Roundtables
Copyright issues impact the day-to-day lives of Canadians. The input we've received from Canadians from across the country will enable us to bring forward a modernized copyright bill for a Canada on the cutting edge of the digital economy.
A modern digital communications system, so critical to economic strength and vitality, also depends on a progressive, forward-looking regulator. For that reason, our Government has been focused, and will remain so, on the efforts of the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), as it moves to respond to the demands and challenges of this new environment.
To that end, our Government has directed the CRTC to hold hearings and provide recommendations on the implications for consumers of a compensation regime for the value of local television signals ... fee-for-carriage. This is an opportunity for the CRTC and the broadcasting industry to look to the future and to find innovative solutions, always with the consumer in mind.
And in that vein, our Government took an important step on behalf of all Canadians by reaching a settlement agreement with broadcasters, cable companies, and satellite companies on the long-standing issue of Part II Licence Fees, which are collected by the CRTC. Under this agreement, which was concluded just last month, we recommended that the CRTC develop a new, forward-looking capped fee regime, one that will provide stability and predictability for the industry and protect the interests of Canadians. In return, members of the broadcasting industry have discontinued court action against the Government of Canada regarding the legitimacy of the Part II Fees. Also, the Government will not seek past amounts owing by the industry, which amount to about $450 million.
I mention the agreement because it is a very good example of where parties with differences can come to the table and achieve mutually beneficial outcomes for the benefit of Canadians.
Going forward, access to content that speaks to our local realities and our local connections is more important than ever. But local content is not just accessed through conventional television. Digital technologies have transformed the way media is consumed, and the onus is on our industries to meet the expectations of Canadians. This means bringing critical financial and human resources to bear and focusing on the business opportunities presented within the digital environment.
Digital technologies have opened a door for all of us as creators, consumers, and citizens to position Canada as a hub for creativity and innovation; and it is the responsibility of all parties to ensure that this potential is realized to its fullest.
Canada can ... and should ... stand on the leading edge of the digital revolution. Our Government sees Canada as a hub for creativity and innovation. We've got some incredible talent in this country.
The changes taking place in communications allow us to open ourselves up, market our creations, and see our innovative ideas take off.
Forget about marketing to 30 million people in Canada ... or 300 million people in the United States. These new technologies help us to sell our products to customers around the world.
I believe there are tremendous opportunities for Canada's creative industries, just waiting to be seized. But in order to take advantage of them, we need to embrace the digital revolution.
When we speak about innovation, I think of Canada's National Film Board (NFB), which is doing some great work. Last year, it put the better part of 900 films online free of charge. And just recently, the NFB launched its free iPhone application. Day or night, anywhere in the world, people now have access to an important part of Canada's cultural heritage.
The Virtual Museum of Canada (VMC) is another example of technology serving the interests of all Canadians. Virtualmuseum.ca gives people throughout this country ... indeed around the world ... access to virtual exhibits from hundreds of Canadian museums. It's harnessing the power of the Internet to bring Canada's rich and diverse heritage into our homes, our schools, and where we work.
So, as I've said, we've revamped and modernized our arts programs with a view to embracing the opportunities of multi-media platforms.
We're also acting on other fronts to ensure that Canadian cultural industries have a strong foundation; the kind of foundation that will allow them to leverage the opportunities of the digital revolution.
We understand that by helping our cultural industries increase their economic potential, we're providing more Canadians with greater access to their culture ... the movies we watch... the books and magazines we read ... the video games we play... just to name a few examples.
Our support is not a handout. It is a wise investment in Canada's economic and cultural future. More Canadians enjoying more arts and culture means increased economic activity for the sector and for Canada as a whole.
And the economic impact of this goes beyond the sales of books or tickets to concerts. It contributes to the uptake of new technology, increased innovation and business models, and increased citizen engagement.
That's why, in Canada's Economic Action Plan, we announced that we would invest more than half a billion dollars in arts and culture. This includes investments that go directly to our country's artists and cultural organizations, including arts training institutions such as the outstanding Banff Centre.
It also includes $60 million in additional funding, over two years, to support the improvement, renovation, and construction of arts and heritage facilities. This funding is helping the Folk Festival Society of Calgary, which is receiving more than $2.3 million for the construction of a new presentation space downtown.
In addition to this, this year alone, our Government has announced more than $875 million in renewed arts and culture spending over the next five years.
Locally, this funding is providing support to organizations that contribute to this city's cultural vitality ... the EPCOR Centre for the Performing Arts ... Calgary's International Children's Festival ... One Yellow Rabbit Theatre ... the Folk Music Festival ... and the Calgary Philharmonic.
At the same time, cultural organizations need multiple pillars of support in order to thrive. To that end, our Government wants to encourage private-sector participation in arts funding.
We've implemented tax exemptions on capital gains for donations of publicly traded securities to registered charities. Our 2006 budget announced the elimination of capital gains tax on donations of publicly-listed securities to charities. This measure was expanded in our 2007 Budget to include donations of publicly-listed securities to private foundations. This fundamental change in federal tax law will provide further incentive for communities and individuals to support the arts in Canada.
We're building private-sector support in other ways too. I've already mentioned the Canada Media Fund ... a public-private partnership.
Endowment incentives are also an important component of our support for Canadian arts organizations. Since 2006, our Government has invested more than $44 million in arts organizations' endowment funds. We've matched close to $72 million from the private sector, for a total of more than $116 million in arts organizations' endowments. Since 2006, Alberta has received $6.5 million to match nearly $11 million in private-sector donations to arts organizations' endowment funds.
In Calgary, we're matching donations that individuals, companies, and community groups make to the EPCOR CENTRE for the Performing Arts and the Calgary Philharmonic Society ... organizations with a loyal following that probably includes people in this room.
And to mark the Canada Council for the Art's 50th anniversary, we committed to providing it with the highest level ever of government support through a 20% increase to its budget since 2006.
With the kind of ongoing investments our Government is providing, artists and arts organizations can plan their activities for the longer term. They can continue to create, produce, and present innovative works that will make Canadians proud.
Moving forward, our Government will continue to seek ways to ensure an environment that is conducive to strong, creative, innovative Canadian businesses.
We will continue to make targeted investments in our creative industries.
And as we invest in every region of the country, we will look to all Canadians -- including the Calgary Chamber of Commerce -- to keep supporting a sector that contributes so much ... to our society ... to our economy ... and to our competitiveness in a global and digital world.
Thank you.