The Government of Canada has unveiled its 2025 Budget, Canada Strong, which announces “its intention to amend the Copyright Act to establish an artist’s resale right in Canada, so that members of the Canadian visual arts community can benefit from future sales of their works.”

The Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (CDCE), which brings together about fifty Francophone and Anglophone organizations representing over 350,000 artists and 3,000 cultural enterprises across the country, applauds this long-awaited and targeted amendment, championed for decades by the visual arts community and unanimously supported by its members.

The CDCE is also pleased to see that several of its key requests for direct support to creators and cultural industries were reflected in the 2025 Budget. These requests, outlined in the strategic document Committing to Canadian Cultural Sovereignty, included the following:

• “Make permanent the budget increases allocated to funding programs and agencies dedicated to the creation and production of cultural works, which are due to end soon, such as Telefilm Canada, the Music Fund, and the Book Fund”; and
• “Exempt the arts and culture sector from the federal spending reduction plan.”

In this regard, the CDCE welcomes the new measures announced:

• $48 million over three years starting in 2026–27 for the Canada Music Fund, to support artists’ careers and strengthen the sector’s competitiveness and stability;
• $150 million over three years starting in 2026–27 for Telefilm Canada, to foster the vitality of Canada’s film industry.

However, the CDCE notes the absence of measures to ensure the sustainability of the budget increases requested for the Canada Book Fund. The Coalition also intends to intensify its efforts to secure fair compensation for writers and publishers for the use of their works in the education sector, as promised by the federal government in its 2022 Budget. This measure, long advocated by the cultural community, would come at no cost to government.

The same applies to the modernization of the private copying regime for the benefit of music rights-holders.

Last month, the CDCE continued its discussions in Ottawa with parliamentarians and public decision-makers to reaffirm the priorities of the cultural sector. It hosted a reception on Parliament Hill and took part in the work of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage as part of its study on the impacts of artificial intelligence on the creative industries. These meetings were an opportunity to reiterate the importance of an ambitious and coherent policy framework to support creation and the diversity of cultural expressions in the digital age.