On Monday, November 30th at noon, CAPACOA appeared as witness, represented by its Director of Research and Development Mr. Frédéric Julien, at the invitation of The House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, in view of its study of Challenges and Issues Faced by the Arts, Culture, Heritage and Sport Sectors During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
No matter what Statistics Canada indicator you look at, live performance industries are the furthest away from recovery. As a matter of fact, they haven’t even begun their recovery and were doing worse in October than during the first wave of the pandemic.
In his bilingual opening statement, Mr. Julien addressed the five questions the study aims to answer.
a) draw up a clear picture of the impacts of the pandemic on the activities of Arts, Culture, Heritage and Sport sectors. In response, Mr. Julien referred to the COVID impact statistics which you can find in detail here.
b) better identify their needs during the current crisis.
c) identify gaps in federal aid programs.
d) identify better support to these sectors which are disproportionately affected by the pandemic to better suit to their reality;
e) facilitate getting artists, athletes and the cultural sector workers back to work; that it also consider measures to best assure and protect business continuity for events, festival, and sporting events in these specific sectors.
CAPACOA Members Under the Spotlight
The performing arts sector was very well represented in this study by The House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage! Martin Roy, Chief Executive Officer, Festivals and major events (FAME) and Julie-Anne Richard, Executive Director of RIDEAU were witnesses during the hearings of November 23 and November 30, respectively.
We will be sharing with you the outcomes of the study as it comes out. In the meantime, you can refer to the following resources:
- Complete Opening Statement and Reference Material from CAPACOA’s Appearance before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage
- Video of the Hearing (CAPACOA appearance starts at 12:15:16)
