Archives

List of Recommendations:

Operational Supports

1. Increase funding to the Canada Council for the Arts and the Department of Canadian Heritage, to assist arts organizations impacted by increasing inflation rates, and respond to the record high number of applications submitted by independent artists.
2. Change program guidelines and adjust eligibility requirements so that all arts organizations, including visual arts, are eligible to apply to Canadian Heritage programs.

Federal Basic Income Guarantee Implementation

3. Provide a Federal Basic Income Guarantee for all Canadians, which will reduce poverty, stabilize incomes, and simplify the complex web of benefits and programs available to Canadians.

Copyright Act Reform

4. Update the Canadian Copyright Act to improve the financial situation of professional visual artists.

Context for Recommendations:

1. The Visual Arts Alliance (VAA) recommends that the Government of Canada fund arts organizations for increased operational costs, and increase funding available to independent artists to address urgent gaps and help our sector continue to support post pandemic growth and connectivity. VAA supports the Canadian Arts Coalition in urging the government to permanently allocate at least 1% of its overall spending towards arts, culture, and heritage. To achieve this for the 2025-26 fiscal year, the Government should increase its allocations by $270 million, via:

1. An increase of $140 million to the Canada Council for the Arts; and
2. An increase of $130 million to the Department of Canadian Heritage

This funding would offer practical financial support to artists organizations facing ongoing financial strains due to a general lack of support and funding. Additionally, these funds would help support the review and implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) at all levels of museum operations.

The cultural sector is facing challenges in recruiting and retaining staff due to insufficient support and funding, rising inflation, and increasing operational costs. This issue is also impacting the recruitment and retention of staff from diverse backgrounds, who are crucial for promoting representation in museums, galleries, and arts organizations. Additionally leadership burnout and concerns about the transfer of institutional knowledge are adding to these challenges. We urge the government to allocate additional funding through Canadian Heritage and the Canada Council for the Arts, specifically for salaries. This support will enable cultural institutions to hire and retain essential staff during this labour shortage and ensure the preservation of leadership and institutional expertise.

It is also critically important that Canada Council funding to individual artists increase to keep up with record-high demands for project assistance for research, development, creation, and production of work, as well as professional development for artists. Between 2017 and 2023, the volume of applications for the Explore and Create programs tripled. The increase in applications is a positive outcome of Canada’s history of investment in arts and culture. Despite this, only 16.6% of applications in 2023 were successful. Increased investment in artists is crucial to retaining Canada’s vibrant and diverse arts sector.

We urgently call for all program funding at the Canada Council to be adjusted for inflation and cost increases to ensure these programs can fulfill their purpose and effectively support the cultural sector. While many visual arts organizations appreciate the renewal of multi-year funding, this support often fails to account for rising costs. Most operating budgets have been flatlined since 2020, and yet inflation increased 17.64% over the last 4 years. Current funding levels do not include increases in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or Cost-of-Living-Adjustment (COLA), leaving organizations struggling to manage escalating operational expenses, which in turn affects the livelihoods of artists.

2. Visual arts organizations and artists are excluded from many programs at Canadian Heritage due to limiting program requirements tailored to other disciplines. The expansion of eligibility requirements would enable more organizations and artists who have an impact on the broader Canadian cultural sector to benefit from the resources offered by Canadian Heritage.

The Canada Cultural Investment Fund (CCIF) Endowment Incentives component at the Department of Canadian Heritage encourages private donors to contribute to endowment funds for not-for-profit professional arts organizations so they can access new sources of funding in the future and have a greater capacity for realizing artistic expression by supporting their long-term stability. However the fund criterion excludes Art Service Organizations (ASO) and competitions (award funding). ASOs face unique financial challenges due to their role in providing essential support services rather than generating direct revenue. They often struggle with limited funding, rising operational costs, and the need for stable financial resources to maintain programming. Expanding the Endowment Incentive to include ASOs will ensure their long-term sustainability by providing a reliable funding stream, enabling them to plan and operate more effectively. Including ASOs in the Endowment Incentives will encourage funding diversification. By fostering endowments, ASOs can attract additional private and public investments, reducing their reliance on single funding sources. This strategic investment will enhance economic impact by encouraging greater cultural investment and philanthropy. Aligning with the strategic priorities of Canadian Heritage and the CCIF, this expansion will strengthen the capacity of arts organizations and support a dynamic cultural sector. The VAA also recommends restoring the CCIF Endowment Initiatives envelope to pre-2024-2025 cut levels and expanding it within the $130 million dollar increased investment for Canadian Heritage as a whole.

Reinvesting funding to the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund (CCSF) at the Department of Canadian Heritage by restoring its funding to pre 2024-25 levels and expanding it within the $130 million dollar increased investment in Canadian Heritage would provide the necessary funding to arts organizations that need to make lasting improvements to their facilities. These sustainable infrastructure changes not only align with government initiatives but also ensure that organizations are able to continue operating sustainably in the face of climate change. The effects of climate change affect populations inequitably, with marginalized people including people of colour, Indigenous populations, low-income populations, and rural populations experiencing its effects first and most strongly. As such, we recommend CCSF considers this in their application guidelines, and the funds provided under CCSF should not be used to replace or stand-in for investments in infrastructure in Indigenous communities to fulfill fiduciary obligations. The creation of a core funding arm of CCSF to support on-going capital costs for infrastructure maintenance for organizations demonstrating financial need is also recommended.

The Museum Assistance Program (MAP) at the Department of Canadian Heritage remains accessible only to museums and galleries though those institutions are only a small part of the range of collecting institutions across the country. The VAA recommends expanding eligibility to all collecting institutions, including arts council funded distributors and galleries to ensure that all art forms are preserved. Furthermore, MAP, like many cultural support programs, remains unadjusted for inflation, effectively reducing the support for this crucial and oversubscribed program. We urge the government to address the chronic underfunding of the MAP by allocating an additional $1 million per year over the next 5 years, to mitigate the impact of inflation while the heritage sector awaits the new National Museum Policy. Recognizing that sustainable core funding for museums will strengthen the capacity of museums to be supportive partners in the decolonization process, all National Museum Policy initiatives, including policy development and funding structures, must be informed by the authoritative guidance of Indigenous peoples in the sector to ensure the National Museum Policy adequately addresses the implementation of UNDRIP, and pivotal issues from Indigenous perspectives.

The VAA also recommends increasing funding for internships and mentorship through the Building Careers in Heritage Program and reinstating the Sectoral Initiatives program, expanding it to include visual arts. It also recommends expanding eligible applicants to the Digital Access to Heritage program to include all visual and media arts collecting organizations.

3. The need for a Federal Basic Income Guarantee (FBIG) was raised by many panelists and delegates at the Minister of Canadian Heritage’s National Culture Summit in Ottawa May 2022, and little has moved since though it should now: artists are at the forefront of building social cohesion across the nation and statistics show that artists generally earn 44% less than general labour.

Most self-employed and contract-based workers in the arts sector cannot afford to pay into the current EI model. Canada’s overall labour force rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, however visual artists and other freelance workers in the sector did not. On average, visual artists’ earnings are less than half of the average Canadian worker. A federal basic income guarantee would act as a safety net for Canadian arts workers by providing unemployed, underemployed, and precariously employed workers with income support.

In addition, the VAA recommends that the Budget provide that professional artistic income up to $10,000 is eligible for a refundable tax credit of 15% to incentivize artists living from their work. VAA also recommends that the Budget reintroduce a four-year income back-averaging system to ensure tax fairness for artists whose work can take years to produce and generate revenue.

4. Copyright is a significant form of income for visual artists, and several proposals have been committed by the Federal Government that muse be acted upon immediately.

First, the proposal to adopt the Artist’s Resale Right must be adopted, so that visual artists will receive 5% of the value of their work that is resold for at least $1,000 through an intermediary (auction house, commercial gallery, etc) in the secondary market. In tandem, the Federal Government needs to ensure that all policy changes in the age of AI comply with the Copyright Act, and that the “3 Cs” principle (consent, credit, and compensation) guide the Government’s actions.

Thirdly, Fair Dealing needs to be amended in the context of education, so they only apply to visual and literary works when they are not commercially available under a license by the rights holder or a collective society.

VAA-AAV requests to appear before the Finance Committee during its Budget 2025 Consultation, and we look forward to discussing this submission with you further.

We also support the priorities identified and submitted by our member organizations, the Canadian Arts Coalition, and the Canadian Artists Network.

The Visual Arts Alliance is a consortium of national visual, media, and craft arts service organizations composted of artists, curators, art museums, artist-run centres and art dealers.