Create. Access.
Canada’s cultural landscape continues to shift, evolve, diversify. Traditional forms of artistic expression are intersecting with new technologies; established creative business models are transforming, becoming more agile and interactive.
Canada’s culture is alive and vital, reflecting the diversity of our country and its people. It is a ubiquitous presence in the daily lives of Canadians from coast to coast to coast, in the biggest cities and smallest rural communities.
The Cultural Affairs Sector of the Department of Canadian Heritage helps cultivate the conditions across the cultural landscape for arts and cultural industries to flourish—focusing on the two critical priorities of creation and access.
Create. Access.
The ways arts and culture enrich Canadian society are almost as diverse as the arts and cultural industries themselves.
Arts and culture contribute to the country’s prosperity, accounting for some $46 billion in economic activity (roughly 3.8% of Canada’s gross domestic product)1 and employing 662,000 highly skilled workers. Moreover, Canadians have volunteered an estimated 88 million hours at arts and cultural organizations—equivalent to 46,000 full-time jobs, valued at $1.1 billion.2 Just as significant, although much harder to quantify, is the contribution they make to the vibrancy of Canadian life. Arts and culture entertain and enlighten, inform and challenge, provoking dialogue about who we are and what we value.
Ultimately, Canada’s arts and culture bring people together—promoting interaction, connection and the sharing of experience. They represent us to the world and to ourselves; they engender pride in our country, shape our sense of being Canadian and contribute to our diversity.
Yet Canadian cultural production faces a number of challenges. It is typically a high-cost endeavour, and competition for audience attention is extremely intense—especially given today’s constant flow of global media. As a society, Canada is exceptionally diverse, home to a flourishing Francophone culture and myriad Aboriginal and ethnocultural communities and closely intertwined with the United States. Market forces alone are not always sufficient to stimulate the creation of high-quality, highly varied Canadian cultural goods and services.
For these reasons, the federal government has an important role to play in Canada’s cultural landscape, fostering a viable creative sector in partnership with the country’s provinces, territories, municipalities and private sector organizations.
Cultivating the right conditions
Canada is not alone in fostering its arts and cultural industries. Ninety-three states and the European Commission ratified the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, recognizing cultural goods and services as being particularly integral to a sense of identity, values and meaning. The Convention also reaffirmed the sovereign right of states to develop cultural policies and strengthen international cooperation and solidarity to favour the cultural expressions of all countries.
Canada’s investments in the arts and culture contribute to the country’s international competitiveness by helping develop a creative workforce with the skills and talent to thrive in a knowledge-based economy, and by strengthening the attractiveness of Canada and its communities to skilled workers, investors and tourists.
A comprehensive toolkit
To support arts and culture, the Government of Canada implements a toolkit that comprises legislation, regulation, the provision of direct financial support, and partnerships among national institutions.
Robust federal legislation helps achieve national objectives for the arts and cultural industries. The Broadcasting Act, for example, sets out broadcasting policy for Canada. The Investment Canada Act encourages investment in Canada by Canadians and non-Canadians, and contributes to economic growth and employment opportunities.
The Copyright Act is a cornerstone of the cultural policy framework. Having a consistent and predictable copyright regime that enables remuneration, protects intellectual property rights and ensures legitimate access to works is critical for investment, innovation and creativity—in short, for the development of content and strengthening of cultural industries.
Regulation is another important component of the federal toolkit. The impact of the Broadcasting Act is also seen here as it empowers the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to supervise and regulate the radio and television industries, as well as cable and satellite signal distributors.
The federal government delivers both direct and indirect support to Canada’s cultural industries—for instance through funding programs and tax incentives—and collaborates closely with partners, including Crown corporations; provincial, territorial and municipal governments; cultural agencies and non-governmental organizations.
The federal toolkit includes a number of national cultural institutions, including CBC/Radio-Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts, the CRTC, Library and Archives Canada, Telefilm Canada, the National Film Board of Canada, the National Arts Centre and national museums.[ Previous Page | Table of Contents | Next Page ]