COVID-19 Emergency Support Fund – Financial Update
$500M Emergency Support Fund to support Cultural, Heritage and Sport Organizations
Background
- On May 8, 2020, the Minister of Canadian Heritage announced the details of a new COVID-19 Emergency Support Fund (ESF) for Cultural, Heritage and Sport Organizations. The $500-million Emergency Support Fund provides additional temporary relief to support cultural, heritage and sport organizations and help them plan for the future.
- The Fund will help maintain jobs and support business continuity for organizations whose viability has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Fund is intended to provide financial support to organizations in these sectors that complements the government’s existing COVID-19 support measures for wages and fixed costs for organizations.
- The Fund was administered by Canadian Heritage and divided among select departmental programs and Portfolio agencies, as well as key delivery organizations. The $500 million was initially divided between the following organizations: $418 million to the Department of Canadian Heritage, $55 million to the Canada Council for the Arts and $27 million to Telefilm Canada.
- A 2 phased approach was taken in order to accelerate the distribution of funds:
- Phase I includes a formula-based top-up to existing recipients of a number of arts, culture and sport programs. This phase employs a streamlined process in which eligible recipients are asked to submit an attestation (rather than a new application) to receive the top-up funding, which is calculated based on their most recent application submitted to their respective program.
- Phase II will include funding for organizations in the arts, culture and heritage sectors that primarily do not currently receive funding from Canadian Heritage, the Canada Council for the Arts, Telefilm Canada, the Canada Media Fund, Musicaction or FACTOR (as well as some organizations that do currently receive funding but were not included under Phase I)
- Due to operational and other decisions on the part of potential recipients, some of whom were able to cover their expenses through other government support measures, approximately $15 million of the funds earmarked for Phase I was reallocated to Phase II initiatives.
- On July 7, 2020, the Government of Canada announced the “Final Components of Phase II of the COVID-19 Emergency Support Fund for Cultural, Heritage and Sport Organizations”. PCH’s initial allocation was reduced by $10.6 million from $418 million to $407.5 million in order to allocate an additional amount of $7.8 million to the Canada Council for the Arts and $2.8 million to Telefilm Canada.
Table I – Phase I - COVID-19 Emergency Support Fund for Cultural, Heritage and Sport Organizations
PCH Programs | Revised Budget | Actuals Sep 30 | Variance | Consumption | % Actuals |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Building Communities through Arts & Heritage | 5,310,200 | 4,463,700 | 846,500 | 84.1% | 2.1% |
Canada Arts Presentation Fund | 7,353,002 | 7,347,999 | 5,003 | 99.9% | 3.5% |
Canada Arts Training Fund | 5,136,000 | 5,136,000 | 0 | 100.0% | 2.5% |
Canada Book Fund | 8,715,540 | 8,715,540 | 0 | 100.0% | 4.2% |
Canada Media Fund | 88,750,000 | 88,750,000 | 0 | 100.0% | 42.4% |
Canada Music Fund | 7,946,562 | 7,946,562 | 0 | 100.0% | 3.8% |
Canada Periodical Fund | 15,423,564 | 15,423,564 | 0 | 100.0% | 7.4% |
Digital Citizen Contribution Program | 3,257,076 | 3,257,076 | 0 | 100.0% | 1.6% |
Harbourfront Centre Funding Program | 1,250,000 | 1,250,000 | 0 | 100.0% | 0.6% |
Sport Support Program | 29,615,225 | 29,615,225 | 0 | 100.0% | 14.1% |
Sport Support Program - Bilateral agreements with provinces and territories | 32,500,000 | 32,500,000 | 0 | 100.0% | 15.5% |
Athlete Assistance Program | 5,000,000 | 5,000,000 | 0 | 100.0% | 2.4% |
Total | 210,257,169 | 209,405,666 | 851,503 | 99.6% | 100.0% |
Portfolio Agencies | Revised Budget | Actuals Sep 30 | Variance | Consumption | % Actuals |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Canada Council for the Arts | 55,000,000 | 55,041,281 | -41,281 | 100.1% | 67.2% |
Téléfilm Canada | 27,000,000 | 26,823,357 | 176,643 | 99.3% | 32.8% |
Total | 82,000,000 | 81,864,638 | 135,362 | 99.8% | 100.0% |
Phase I – PCH by Sector
Phase I – Portfolio Agencies
Table 2 – Phase II - COVID-19 Emergency Support Fund for Cultural, Heritage and Sport Organizations
PCH Programs | Revised Budget | Actuals Sep 30 | Variance | Consumption | % Actuals |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Canada Music Fund | 25,000,000 | 25,000,000 | 0 | 100.0% | 13.8% |
Canada Periodical Fund | 45,000,000 | 44,919,818 | 80,182 | 99.8% | 24.8% |
Canada Media Fund | 57,500,000 | 57,500,000 | 0 | 100.0% | 31.7% |
Museum Assistance Program | 48,906,220 | 33,547,674 | 15,358,546 | 68.6% | 18.5% |
Canada Arts Presentation Fund | 390,033 | 227,750 | 162,283 | 58.4% | 0.1% |
Canada Arts Training Fund | 45,000 | 15,000 | 30,000 | 33.3% | 0.0% |
Indigenous Languages and Cultures Program | 1,741,341 | 1,686,044 | 55,297 | 96.8% | 0.9% |
TV5 | 345,000 | 345,000 | 0 | 100.0% | 0.2% |
Canada Book Fund | 11,000,000 | 10,999,590 | 410 | 100.0% | 6.1% |
Development of Official-Language Communities Program | 1,360,237 | 1,228,814 | 131,423 | 90.3% | 0.7% |
Sport Support Program | 4,900,000 | 4,900,000 | 0 | 100.0% | 2.7% |
Digital Citizen Contribution Program | 1,000,000 | 916,644 | 83,356 | 91.7% | 0.5% |
Total | 197,187,831 | 181,286,334 | 15,901,497 | 91.9% | 100.0% |
Portfolio Agencies | Revised Budget | Actuals Sep 30 | Variance | Consumption | % Actuals |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Canada Council for the Arts | 7,800,000 | 7,745,927 | 54,073 | 99.3% | 85.3% |
Téléfilm Canada | 2,755,000 | 1,337,135 | 1,417,865 | 48.5% | 14.7% |
Total | 10,555,000 | 9,083,062 | 1,471,938 | 86.1% | 100.0% |
Phase II – PCH by Sector
Phase II – Portfolio Agencies
Cumulative- COVID-19 Emergency Support Fund for Cultural, Heritage and Sport Organizations
PCH Programs | Revised Budget | Actuals Sep 30 | Variance | Consumption | % Actuals |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Athlete Assistance Program | 5,000,000 | 5,000,000 | 0 | 100.0% | 1.3% |
Building Communities through Arts & Heritage | 5,310,200 | 4,463,700 | 846,500 | 84.1% | 1.1% |
Canada Arts Presentation Fund | 7,743,035 | 7,575,749 | 167,286 | 97.8% | 1.9% |
Canada Arts Training Fund | 5,181,000 | 5,151,000 | 30,000 | 99.4% | 1.3% |
Canada Book Fund | 19,715,540 | 19,715,130 | 410 | 100.0% | 5.0% |
Canada Media Fund | 146,250,000 | 146,250,000 | 0 | 100.0% | 37.4% |
Canada Music Fund | 32,946,562 | 32,946,562 | 0 | 100.0% | 8.4% |
Canada Periodical Fund | 60,423,564 | 60,343,382 | 80,182 | 99.9% | 15.4% |
Development of Official-Language Communities Program | 1,360,237 | 1,228,814 | 131,423 | 90.3% | 0.3% |
Digital Citizen Contribution Program | 4,257,076 | 4,173,720 | 83,356 | 98.0% | 1.1% |
Harbourfront Centre Funding Program | 1,250,000 | 1,250,000 | 0 | 100.0% | 0.3% |
Indigenous Languages and Cultures Program | 1,741,341 | 1,686,044 | 55,297 | 96.8% | 0.4% |
Museum Assistance Program | 48,906,220 | 33,547,674 | 15,358,546 | 68.6% | 8.6% |
Sport Support Program | 34,515,225 | 34,515,225 | 0 | 100.0% | 8.8% |
Sport Support Program - Bilateral agreements with provinces and territories | 32,500,000 | 32,500,000 | 0 | 100.0% | 8.3% |
TV5 | 345,000 | 345,000 | 0 | 100.0% | 0.1% |
Total | 407,445,000 | 390,692,000 | 16,753,000 | 95.9% | 100.0% |
Portfolio Agencies | Revised Budget | Actuals Sep 30 | Variance | Consumption | % Actuals |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Canada Council for the Arts | 62,800,000 | 62,787,208 | 12,792 | 99.98% | 69.0% |
Téléfilm Canada | 29,755,000 | 28,160,492 | 1,594,508 | 94.64% | 31.0% |
Total | 92,555,000 | 90,947,700 | 1,607,300 | 98.26% | 100.0% |
Grand Total | 500,000,000 | 481,639,700 | 18,360,300 | 96.3% | 100.0% |
Cumulative by Sector
Conclusion
- As of September 30, 2020, over 96% ($482M of $500M) of the funding to support Cultural, Heritage and Sport Organizations was spent.
- Over 10,000 recipients received funding from PCH, Telefilm Canada and Canada Council for the Arts in addition to payments made by third-party organizations to final recipients.
- This was all possible with PCH being creative and flexible by adjusting and simplifying its internal processes, such as:
- Developing an online portal for 2 programs;
- Proceeding with full payment of the Emergency Support Funding by ensuring an attestation is duly signed;
- Proceeding with the batch payment process to ensure approvals are done in one stroke; and
- Considering alternate forms of approvals than the wet signature.
Next Steps
- The Payment authority under the Public Health Events of National Concern Payments Act (PHENCPA) was up to September 30, 2020. This payment authority had been extended to December 31, 2020.
- $16.5 million is available to support Cultural, Heritage and Sport Organizations of which $15 million is for PCH and $1.5 million for Telefilm Canada.
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