The Speech from the Throne, which was given on September 23, 2020, had this to say:
“This fall, in addition to extending the wage subsidy, the Government will take further steps to bridge vulnerable businesses to the other side of the pandemic by … introducing further support for industries that have been the hardest hit, including travel and tourism, hospitality, and cultural industries like the performing arts.”
Other noteworthy announcements included:
- Extension of the wage subsidy and introduction of the Canada Recovery Benefit for self-employed workers ;
- Expanded Canada Emergency Business Account to help businesses with fixed costs;
- Taxation of web giants and requirement to contribute to the creation, production, and distribution of our stories, on screen, in lyrics, in music, and in writing.
Why is this important?
This is the first time in history that the term “performing arts” is explicitly mentioned in the Speech from the Throne. Moreover:
- All six of CAPACOA’s pre-budget recommendations which were submitted last month, were addressed in the speech.
- The support for “hardest hit” industries was based on statistical evidence provided by CAPACOA that the performing arts was the most devastated of all industries. It was also consequential to the hardesthit.ca awareness raising campaign endorsed by FAME, CAPACOA and a few other arts service organizations.
- The speech was delivered one day after the LightUpLive day of visibility for the live event industry. Many CAPACOA member participated in the event. In total, close to 700 hundred venues light up in red on September 22nd.
Our thoughts and our gratitude
CAPACOA is extremely pleased with the announcement of further support for hardest hit industries such as the performing arts. We are also equally happy about the announcements regarding the Canada Recovery Benefit and the extended CEWS. We are also very proud to see the government taking on significant legislative changes to ensure Web giants’ revenues are shared more fairly with creators and media. Finally, we take good note of the infrastructure investments, which are likely to benefit many performing arts organizations and workers.
We are proud of the role CAPACOA plays in advocacy for everyone involved in the performing arts in this country. While this was a very important step for the performing arts, we acknowledge that there is still a lot to be done, and we renew our commitment to advocating our members and the performing arts industry.
We thank our advocacy partners: members of the advocacy committee, Festivals and Major Events, the Live Event Community and the Canadian Arts Coalition.
Moreover, we would like to extend our gratitude to Frédéric Julien, our Director of Research and Development for all of his efforts and hard work in this department.
Lastly, we thank our dear members. We recognize that they are part of this success and we would like to take this occasion to thank them heartily.
