List of Recommendations:
Public Funding Supports
1. Increase funding by $330 million to protect arts and culture in Canada.
2. Expand program guidelines and eligibility requirements to support diversity, and inclusivity among artistic disciplines.
Social Safety Net Provisions
3. Provide a federal Basic Income Guarantee for all Canadians.
4. Amend the Income Tax Act to better support artists and contract professionals, and Indigenous Elders.
Copyright Reform
5. Update the Copyright Act to improve the financial situation of professional visual artists.
Minimize Impact of Trade Tariffs
6. Implement measures to support artists and galleries impacted by trade tariffs and instability.
1.Increase funding by $330 million to protect arts and culture in Canada.
The Visual Arts Alliance (VAA) calls on the Government of Canada to defend arts and culture through immediate significant investments including:
1. An increase of $140 million to the Canada Council for the Arts; and
2. An increase of $190 million to the Department of Canadian Heritage.
This aligns with recommendations from the Canadian Arts Coalition urging the government to permanently allocate 1% of its overall spending towards arts, culture and heritage.
This funding would offer practical financial support to arts organisations facing ongoing financial strains. It addresses the needs of our members, the communities they support, and the millions of Canadians whose lives are enriched and improved by access to arts and culture.
We urge the government to increase funding to these departments to keep pace with inflation and protect the sustainability of arts organisations and artists’ livelihoods. Flatlined budgets and rising costs have created a crisis of access. For example, programs like Canada Council’s Explore and Create and the Museums Assistance Program (MAP) are severely oversubscribed. Between 2017 and 2023, the volume of applications from artists increased by a factor of three, with only 16.6% of applications in 2023 succeeding, while the MAP has been oversubscribed by a factor of 10, with increasing demand in the absence of dedicated repatriation funding.
This crisis leaves artists and institutions uncertain about their survival. Recruiting and retaining staff – especially from equity-deserving communities – remains a serious challenge, undermining representation across the sector.
This funding is also essential to deliver the government’s UNDRIP Action Plan, which will require significant support from Canada’s arts and culture sector to fulfill constitutional and legal obligations. This includes Indigenous-led development of a National Framework for Indigenous Cultural Heritage Rights and comprehensive repatriation research, as called for by Indigenous groups and major heritage organisations.
2. Expand program guidelines and eligibility requirements to support diversity, and inclusivity among artistic disciplines.
Within existing funding programs there are numerous inefficiencies and silos that disadvantage or disqualify meaningful initiatives and impactful organisations. Many Canadian Heritage programs exclude visual arts due to discipline-specific criteria. The VAA recommends tying any funding increases, including the proposed $190 million, to measurable progress on disciplinary equity, with a focus on Indigenous and equity-seeking communities and emerging practices.
For example, the Canada Cultural Investment Fund’s Endowment Incentives component currently excludes Arts Service Organisations (ASOs), despite their essential role in supporting the arts sector through advocacy, professional development, and capacity-building. Expanding eligibility to include ASOs would provide a vital funding mechanism, enabling them to attract private investment and diversify their financial base. This strategic investment would strengthen sector-wide infrastructure and amplify public funding impact. VAA recommends restoring the program to pre-2024–25 levels and expanding it within the proposed increase to Canadian Heritage.
We recommend reinvesting and expanding the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund to support climate-resilient, equity-driven infrastructure upgrades in the cultural sector. Organisations serving marginalized communities should be prioritized, including Indigenous and rural populations, who face disproportionate climate impacts. A core funding stream should be introduced to address urgent capital maintenance needs for organisations demonstrating financial vulnerability.
We recommend expanding eligibility for the MAP so all collecting institutions, including film and video distributors and galleries may apply. Currently, the program is only accessible to museums. This eligibility expansion ensures all art forms are presented and protected. We also urge the government to address the chronic underfunding of the MAP by allocating an additional $1 million per year over the next 5 years.
The Canada Arts Presentation Fund provides financial assistance to organisations presenting arts festivals and performing arts programming. Visual arts organisations and festivals are currently ineligible to access these funds, which should be corrected.
We also recommend increasing funding for internships and mentorship through the Building Careers in Heritage program and reinstating the Sectoral Initiatives program with an expanded focus on the visual arts. These investments are essential to addressing long-standing workforce gaps in the visual arts sector, particularly for emerging professionals and equity-deserving groups.
3. Provide a federal Basic Income Guarantee for all Canadians.
The need for a federal Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) was raised repeatedly at the Minister of Canadian Heritage’s National Culture Summit in 2022. Most self-employed and contract-based workers in the arts sector cannot afford to pay into the current EI model. On average, visual artists earn 44% less than half of what the average Canadian worker makes. A BIG would provide a vital safety net for arts workers by supporting unemployed, underemployed, and precariously employed individuals. It also aligns with federal priorities on equity, reconciliation, and mental health. It would directly benefit Indigenous, racialized, disabled, and 2SLGBTQ+ artists, who disproportionately experience income insecurity—advancing inclusion. International pilots (e.g. Finland, Spain, Ireland) show BIG improves health, reduces stress, and increases civic engagement—all outcomes that benefit all of society, not just recipients.
4. Amend the Income Tax Act to better support artists and contract professionals, and Indigenous Elders.
The VAA recommends that the Income Tax Act be amended to include:
1. Tax deductions for income from copyright;
2. Income averaging for artists and cultural workers, as recommended by the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage in 2023; and
3. A “Cultural Services Exemption” from T4A reporting requirements for Elders.
Tax reform measures should be implemented that take into account the unpredictable nature of visual artists’ income. In 1995, the government of Quebec introduced a copyright tax exemption for creators earning under $60,000 annually. A similar incentive should be extended to the rest of Canada, so artists benefit more fully from their labour. In turn, this would stimulate innovation and creativity, and improve Canada’s cultural production.
Artists and other self-employed cultural workers are at a disadvantage by paying more tax in a higher earning year, even though that income could support them during leaner years. In 2004, Quebec introduced an income averaging provision for artists, which allows them to spread taxes on qualifying income over multiple years. Income averaging is also practiced in several European countries, and Canadians previously benefited from income averaging until 1988. Self-employed artists and cultural workers often work under variable and uncertain conditions. Allowing them to pay tax based on a four-year income average would rectify this unfairness and help to ease financial pressure.
Elders hold a sacred place within Indigenous communities. Their knowledge, teachings, and cultural leadership are not services rendered for commercial gain but acts of cultural continuity, spiritual guidance, and community care. When Elders are invited to speak, offer prayers, lead ceremonies, or provide counsel, they are sharing generations of lived knowledge—gifts rooted in relational responsibility, not transactional economy.
Framing these cultural contributions as taxable income is a colonial imposition that fails to respect the spiritual and non-commercial nature of their work. Honoraria offered to Elders are gestures of gratitude, not wages. To tax these gestures is to undermine their role and place within our communities. We urge a systemic shift: recognize the cultural and ceremonial services provided by Elders as distinct and non-taxable. This aligns with Canada’s reconciliation commitments and is a meaningful step toward honoring Indigenous ways of knowing and being. Elders are knowledge keepers, language carriers, and spiritual leaders whose contributions deserve dignity, not deductions.
5. Update the Canadian Copyright Act to improve the financial situation of professional visual artists.
The Copyright Act provides a significant form of income for visual artists, and the Federal Government has committed to several policy changes that must be acted on immediately.
We request that the government fulfill its 2024 Fall Economic Statement commitment and introduce an Artist’s Resale Right (ARR) as an amendment to the Copyright Act through the 2025 Fall Budget. The ARR allows visual artists to receive 5% of the value of their work that is resold for at least $1,000 through an intermediary (such as an auction house or commercial gallery) in the secondary market. Resale rights would allow visual artists to be rewarded as their career progresses, and their reputation grows. It is particularly beneficial for Indigenous and senior artists, and it is a critical step forward in improving the economic conditions of Canadian artists. The adoption of ARR legislation will align Canada with our reliable international trade partners, as over 90 countries around the world have legislation and seek reciprocal agreements with Canada.
Fair Dealing must be amended in the context of education, so that it only applies to visual and literary works that are not commercially available under a license by the rights holder or a collective society. We echo the recommendations made by Access Copyright and Copibec in 2024.
We urge the government to ensure all policy changes in the age of Artificial Intelligence comply with the Copyright Act, and that principles of consent, credit, and compensation guide the government’s actions. We support recommendations from the Coalition for the Diversity of Culture Expression, calling “for the Copyright Act not to be amended to allow technology development companies to use protected works, productions, and performances to train generative AI systems without authorization or compensation.”
6. Implement measures to support artists and galleries impacted by trade tariffs and instability.
According to Statistics Canada, Canada’s exported cultural goods and services was valued at $24.5 billion in 2022. Of that total, $8.2 billion, or 33%, of exports were visual and applied arts exported to the United States. The economic impact of a trade war is felt by many art galleries and artists who rely on U.S. sales, as well as those who import American goods to make and present art.
Although the U.S. has not imposed a tariff on Canadian art, Canadian galleries report business is slower than usual, and artworks shipped to the U.S. are getting stuck at the border. Some Canadian artists work and/or reside in both countries, and they bring art they produced in the U.S. to Canada for temporary exhibitions or to sell on consignment at a Canadian gallery. Many Canadian commercial galleries sell art by American artists, and face hardship due to tariffs on American artworks.
If these tariffs remain in place, the government should consider opportunities to directly support artists and commercial galleries, including:
1. A GST exemption for Canadian art, which would make art more affordable, help creative businesses grow domestically, and bring Canada in line with European countries that apply reduced or zero tax rates on cultural goods; and
2. Removing tariffs on cross-border transport of art between Canada and the United States. The Art Dealers Association of Canada submitted a Remission Application to the Minister of Finance. This application showcases the detrimental effects of tariffs on cultural goods.
These initiatives recognize the public value of art as a cultural good and an economic driver, helping commercial galleries reinvest in artist development, community programming, and international promotion.
Visual Arts Alliance (VAA-AAV)
The Visual Arts Alliance supports and advocates for the visual arts community. We participate in an ongoing dialogue with a collective purpose and vision, allowing us to advance the visual arts in Canada. Our members represent national and provincial Art Service Organisations representing the visual arts, media arts, and craft subsectors, including artists, curators, dealers, artist-run centres, museums, media arts centres, educators, etc.