The Hon. James Moore, P.C., M.P. - Art and culture in the digital age: Being confident in a world of choice

Arts, Culture & Delivering Results for Canada

Speech by the Hon. James Moore, PC, MP
Minister of Canadian Heritage & Official Languages
Canadian Media Production Association "Prime Time Conference"
Ottawa, Ontario, February 17th, 2011
(Check Against Delivery)
Audio Link

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.

The CMPA Prime Time Conference is one of the great events every year, bringing people together to talk policy, technology and creativity.

5 years ago this month, Stephen Harper was sworn into office as Canada's Prime Minister.

It seems only appropriate when we reach such milestones, to take a look back, and examine our Government's record on arts and culture.

In the brief time that I am with you today, I am going to do just that. I want to explain some of our Government's achievements, and, explain why we made some of the decisions our Government has made, then I want to talk about what's ahead.

First, to be clear, the Government of Prime Minister Harper is investing more money into arts, culture and Official Languages than any Government in Canadian history.

We have tabled - and passed - five budgets through Parliament, and in each one of the budgets we have increased funding for culture.

Let me say that again - we have tabled five budgets, and we have increased our support for arts and culture in every one of our budgets.

Why did we choose to do so?

Because supporting Canadian culture means supporting the Canadian economy.

Arts and culture represents over 630,000 jobs in the Canadian economy.

Canada's cultural industries represent $46 billion in the Canadian economy.

Let's put that in perspective, the arts and culture sectors are larger than Canada's insurance industry, and Canada's forest industry-combined.

When we said in our Economic Action Plan that we were going to invest in infrastructure, we weren't just talking about bridges, roads and rail crossings.

We were also talking about cultural infrastructure.

Our Government has created two new national museums - both outside the national capital.

Canada's Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 - to celebrate that great diversity of and strength that has been brought to Canada by new Canadians.

And the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg - to educate and reflect on the atrocities that have happened in the past, and, to recognize the great role that Canada has historically played in the defense of human rights abroad, and the values we strive to achieve at home.

On top of creating these two new national museums, we have also increased funding for all our national museums here in the national capital, including the stunning $240 million renovation at the Museum of Nature, which was officially opened by Her Majesty the Queen on her visit last summer.

Our Government has doubled cultural infrastructure spending, which has meant more money for more local and national cultural projects that are critical to our communities.

The Theatre du Nouveau Monde in Montreal has all new upgraded equipment, the City of Barrie's new downtown Community Theatre is being built; the Imperial Theatre in Saint John has been renovated; the Harbourfront Theatre in Summerside, PEI; renovations to the Massey Hall, Roy Thomson Hall, the Royal Conservatory of Music, and the National Ballet School in Toronto; we invested heavily in Montreal's festival centre - the Quartier de Spectacles, home of the Jazz Festival; Fredericton's Beaverbrook Gallery - which is New Brunswick's provincial art gallery - has all new space for their collections, the Centre Communautaire Francophone de Cambridge, and the Surrey Art Gallery in British Columbia have been expanded. And these are just a few of the hundreds of examples.

And what good is all this infrastructure without great cultural experiences and events that go along with them?

We are supporting - at record levels - celebrations, concerts, community events and festivals across the country.

From large events like the Montreal Jazz Festival, Luminato, the Shaw Festival, the Edmonton Fringe Festival, New Brunswick Summer Music Festival, and others.

To small local festivals that bring people together in cities and towns all across the country. Events like the Miramichi Irish Festival, Jonquiere en Musiqe, Northern Alberta International Children's Festival in St. Albert; Medicine Hat Jazz Festival; and Port Moody's Golden Spike Days.

These are events that enrich communities, bring people together, showcase Canadian talent, and improve the quality of our lives.

When the global recession hit, our government had a choice - we could do what other governments in the G-8 and G-20 did. We could cut funding to culture like they did - or, we could take a different path. A Canadian path.

That's what we chose.

Not only did we not cut funding to culture, we didn't maintain the status-quo either, we increased funding for arts, culture, festivals and creativity when most governments were going in the opposite direction.

In our Economic Action Plan, we stood up for, and stood with, our cultural communities and increased our support to record levels.

We did so because we know how fragile arts organizations are. How quickly they can disappear if support isn't there.

And also, we increased our support because we know how much Canadian artists do for Canada.

And I want to give you an example of that.

Eva Markvoort, a beautiful young British Columbian, had a double lung transplant in 2007. It was needed because of cystic fibrosis - a debilitating genetic disease that often causes early death.

The transplant was initially successful, but about 2 years later her body started to reject her new, donated lungs.

On March 25th, 2010 she had a particularly bad day, and on her blog, she wrote: "I am not managing, not managing at all. I'm drowning in the medications. I can't breathe. Every hour. Once an hour. I can't breathe. Something has to change."

6 days later she died. She was 25.

Last Friday, a group of Eva's friends, and her family wanted to raise money for cystic fibrosis and raise awareness of the importance of organ donation.

So what did they do?

They put on a concert at the Massey Theatre in New Westminster in her honour.

The asked artists for help.

And they did.

Vancouver artists Dan Mangan, The Zolas, Hannah Georgas, and Corrina Corrina performed.

They volunteered their time.

They put on a fantastic concert.

They weren't paid - all proceeds went to charity.

They gave to a great cause, because they were asked.

I tell this story, because Canadian artists do this often - both for the benefit of Canadians and those in need abroad, like when Bob Ezrin and K'Naan mobilized "Young Artists for Haiti" to raise money after the devastation of Haiti's earthquake last year.

Or when Rick Mercer hosted "Hope Live" here in Ottawa - he paid all his own expenses to come to Ottawa and host 2 fundraisers, to raise money for women struggling to bear children after cancer treatment.

A friend called, he answered, and he gave.

Whether we've had floods, or droughts, international disasters, earthquakes, fighting against cancer or other diseases, or in response to personal tragedies like Eva's, it has been Canada's artists who have stood up, united us, and brought us together, being our voice, articulating our sorrow, and, rallying us to positive action.

Artists also inspire us. During the 2010 Games in Vancouver, when Nikki Yanofsky sang "I Believe" a country was inspired. When K.D. Lang sand "Hallelujah" in B.C. place, she wowed the whole world and made all Canadians proud.

Artists have done so much for Canada, and that's why Canadians hold our artists in such high esteem.

It's no wonder that when the CBC did a survey of Canadians not long ago to list the greatest Canadians ever, the list of the top 100 included 36 artists - Mordecai Richler, Emily Carr, Glenn Gould and others. Only 17 of the top 100 were athletes, by the way.

We need to support our artists and what they do.

I believe in this deeply, and our Government understands this.

That's why, in our first budgets we decided to permanently increase funding for the Canada Council for the Arts by 20% - the largest funding increase for the Canada Council in decades.

It is also why we renewed all of our programs to support the artists and the creative economy, and to do so for five years.

The Canada Music Fund - we consulted artists, improved the program, and renewed it for 5-years.

The Canada Book Fund - we consulted authors, improved the program, and renewed it for 5-years.

The Canada Periodical Fund - we consulted writers and publishers, improved the program, and renewed it for 5-years.

Our Road Map for Linguistic Duality - we consulted Official Languages organizations and community leaders, improved the program by adding a fund for the arts, and renewed the program for 5-years.

In supporting all of these programs, by investing in our creative communities the way we have, we have sent a message that has been loud and clear: We support the creative economy, we support our artists, and by providing more funding than ever, over a longer timeframe than ever, we want to protect you from the global recession as best we can.

And this has been recognized.

When we renewed all these funding pillars for Canadian creators, Heather Ostertag, the former CEO of FACTOR, said "What is provided to Canadian artists by the Government of Canada is the envy of the world."

As a country we have come a very long way.

A very long way.

Gone is the era when arts and culture were not understood - not understood for the role they play in building our country, inspiring our youth, telling our stories, and contributing both to our economy and quality of life.

We understand the arts and our creative economy and how important they are to Canada.

For much of Canada's history, arts and the creative economy was not understood and not supported, and the results were an embarrassment for Canada.

In June 1951, the Massey Commission published one of the most significant reports in Canadian history.

It outlined how Canada's culture was crumbling, slipping into foreign hands, and that there was indeed a crisis that needed to be addressed.

Among some of the findings in Massey's report:

The only truly national publication in Canada was Reader's Digest, which was published entirely in the United States

Because of the American dominance in the textbook publishing industry, American textbooks filled Canadian classrooms and Canadian students knew more about the 4th of July than the 1st of July; more about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, than they did about John A. MacDonald, George-Etienne Cartier, or George Brown.

Countless invaluable Canadian books could no longer be found inside Canada

In fact, the largest collections of Canadiana in the world were held at the Library of Congress in Washington, the New York Public Library, and at Harvard University

The American Museum of natural history had more full-time researchers in its Insect and Spider Division than there were researchers in the entire National Museum of Canada.

At the National Gallery of Canada, which in the immediate postwar years had a permanent staff of only four people. At the exact same time the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio, had twenty-six full-time employees.

In 1948, there were over 1,800 original works of fiction published in Great Britain, and over 1,100 in the United States. In Canada, there were just 14.

We have come a very very long way.

And as we go into the future we need to aggressively and proudly support our creative communities by working together to modernize our policies, our investments and to seize the opportunities in the digital world.

We did this when we created the Canada Media Fund.

By merging together Canada Television Fund and the New Media Fund, establishing effective governance and strong partnerships, we have paved the way for great Canadian content on platforms Canadians choose.

We also need to protect our artists with effective copyright reform.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the CMPA for your full support of our legislation - C-32 the Copyright Modernization Act -because you understand how important this is for Canada.

We consulted widely before we tabled this legislation. We listened to Canadians. And in this legislation we found the right balance that will serve Canada for years to come.

The legislation implements the WIPO treaties.

C-32 will protect Canada's reputation on the international stage by raising our intellectual property protection to international standards and expectations.

Our legislation protects the rights of creators to protect themselves from hackers and thieves by allowing them to protect their property with digital locks if creators choose to.

Bill C-32 makes piracy and theft illegal, it has a responsible expansion of fair dealing, a notice and notice regime that works, we require internet service providers to be part of the solution and enforcement, we support consumers by rejected calls for increased taxes and levies on iPods and digital devices, and, most importantly in my view, the legislation has a mandatory 5-year review which will forever force Parliament, whether they want to or not, to have to review this legislation every 5-years to ensure Canada's intellectual property regime is working and serving the interests of Canada's creators and consumers.

This legislation is essential for our digital strategy, essential for creators, and needs to be passed by this Parliament as soon as possible.

So I've talked about some of what our Government has done to date, now I want to talk about what is ahead.

We must, as a Government, and all of us together as partners, lean forward and aggressively move forward into the new era of digital transformation.

Some great work has already been done.

The National Film Board has done great work in embracing digital media - their iPhone and iPad apps are outstanding success stories of showcasing Canadian content on new platforms.

CBC-Radio Canada has also done a fine job with tou.tv, the CBC Radio and Radio Canada apps that allow for all Canadians, in all regions to access Canadian content, in both Official Languages, when and where they choose to.

A Nova Scotian can be travelling in Toronto and be listening to a CBC 2 radio broadcast originating out of Prince George as he walks down Yonge Street.

This is the digital connectedness that needs to happen at the public broadcaster, and the CBC has shown leadership in essentially being a research body for new media and engaging audiences and testing new digital ideas with Canadians.

I applaud the CBC for this leadership and I encourage them to go further faster in embracing connecting Canadians through new digital opportunities.

They need to do this because mobile is everything now. Mobile computing is the most common form of computing now.

As well all know from "The Social Network" - Facebook turns 6 this year, Foursquare turns 3 this year, YouTube turns 7, and Twitter has become so powerful a tool that it was almost nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for its role in connecting people on the streets of Tehran during the green revolution.

As producers, creators and cultural business leaders, you all know that these platforms are challenges that have to embraced because of the unbelievable opportunity the represent.

And I want to tell you, that I understand this imperative too. And across all our programs and funds were are reforming the way we do things to ensure the best opportunities for Canada in this incredible new mobile digital world.

Also, looking ahead, we are aggressively pursuing co-production agreements with key markets. At the Toronto International Film Festival I announced that negotiations would be beginning with India - the largest producing country of films in the world - and we have.

We are also looking to open new markets as quickly as possible, and I will be looking to you for your support on how we can best move forward, which markets need to be pursued next, and what needs to be at the heart of these agreements.

As Academy Award nominated films "Incendies" and "Barney's Version" have shown: co-productions work, to the benefit of the producers, creators, talent, and the consumer.

We need more agreements that serve Canada, and we will make that happen.

In closing, ladies and gentlemen, let me go back to where I began.

After 5 years, I think Prime Minister Harper and our Government have clearly shown that we value arts, culture, and Canada's creative economy.

Our investments in festivals, community events and the arts are unprecedented in Canadian history.

We have 2 new national museums and are building on the existing museums.

We are building new cultural spaces and upgrading heritage sites at a record pace.

We have renewed our programs to support creative communities for 5 years.

We supporting and working with the CBC as they move to provide more digital content than ever, and more Canadian content than they ever have before.

We are working to protect our creative industries with effective copyright reforms that make sense for Canada.

We are investing a record amount in the Canada Council for the Arts to support our diverse creative sector.

We are looking ahead for more co-production agreements, working with Telefilm, the NFB, the CBC, the CMF and others to build the digital infrastructure for the next generation of audiences for Canadian creators.

The opportunities ahead are too great, Canadian talent is too vast, and our responsibility is so clear: we will continue to defend Canada's cultural communities so they have the confidence to stand tall and proud for all of us to see.

Thank you.

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