Photo © Kishore Uthamaraj

The Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (CDCE) would like to congratulate Pablo Rodriguez on his appointment as the new Minister of Canadian Heritage and Quebec’s Lieutenant, and François-Philippe Champagne as Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. The CDCE is delighted with the appointment of these two experienced ministers who will ensure the revival and vitality of the Canadian cultural sector.

During the last federal election, the Liberal Party committed to many achievements for the cultural sector. First, it promised to introduce legislation to amend the Broadcasting Act, within the first 100 days of a new mandate, to ensure that the web giants contribute to the creation and promotion of Canadian audio-visual and musical works. This important overhaul, which has been overdue for more than a decade, would result in a monthly recovery of $70 million for artists, creators, professionals and businesses in these sectors.

The party has also committed to protecting Canada’s artists, creators and copyright holders through amendments to the Copyright Act, taking into account the recommendations of the Shifting Paradigms report. Similarly, the Liberals have promised to assess the impact of the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision in Access Copyright v. York University and to closely examine the issue of modernizing the private copying regime.

We are more confident than ever that a fruitful collaboration between the two departments will materialize so that the revision of the Copyright Act will allow for an improvement in the revenues of artists, creators and rights holders, in addition to promoting the growth of the Canadian economy. It should be noted that the GDP of culture exceeded $57 billion in 2019, or 2.7% of the Canadian GDP, and represented more than 655,000 jobs in 2018, far ahead of the agriculture, natural resource extraction, oil and gas, utilities and automobile sectors.

The CDCE would also like to congratulate Steven Guilbeault on his appointment as Minister of Environment and Climate Change, and to thank him for his hard work on behalf of culture, particularly in the context of the revision of the Broadcasting Act.

Finally, the CDCE reiterates its willingness to cooperate with the Ministers to help them move forward on these priority issues and to contribute to the implementation of policies that are essential to the survival and development of the Canadian cultural sector and to the diversity of cultural expressions.

For more information
Bill Skolnik, CDCE’s Co-Chair
Fanny Tan, Research and Communications Officer
514-277-2666