Transition material 2021 — Strategic overview of the Department of Canadian Heritage

• This segment describes linkages between the core mandate of PCH and the Government-wide priorities of advancing reconciliation as well as equity, diversity and inclusion, and countering social fracturing.
• As an introductory piece to the Strategic Advice section of the transition briefing book, it provides context for the advice on key policy and program files found in this section.

Overview of PCH’s Mandate and Sectors

• The PCH mandate encompasses wide-ranging responsibilities relating to Canadian identity and values through the promotion of human rights, multiculturalism and official languages and critical support for the arts, culture heritage and sport sectors. In 2021, the federal budget committed $1.93 billion to PCH and Canadian Heritage portfolio organizations – compared to $1.2 billion in 2019.
• The arts, culture, heritage and sport sectors play a critical economic and social role. They contribute to nation building and are defining elements of Canada’s trading relationships, tourism industry and diplomatic activities.
• The culture and sport sectors contributed $63.2 billion toward the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2019, representing 772,169 jobs, 3.0% of national GDP and 4.0% of all jobs in the economy. In 2017, the culture industry contributed one and half as much to the GDP as did the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting industries combined.
• The arts, culture, heritage and sport sectors are powerful levers in advancing reconciliation as well as equity, diversity and inclusion objectives; PCH directly supports equity-deserving communities, organizations and practitioners.
• Pre-pandemic, the arts, culture and heritage sectors were grappling with the profound and irreversible impacts of the digital transition and faced a unique set of challenges making them susceptible to broader economic shocks (e.g., commercial unviability, cost relative to market size, precarious workforce). The sports sector was also vulnerable due to reliance on major tournaments to generate income and to barriers towards increased participation. These sectors were also reorienting to engage more deeply with reconciliation, equity issues and the need for a broad renewal of state cultural institutions.

The Past 18 Months Have Brought Major Impacts Affecting PCH’s Mandate

• The pandemic has magnified longstanding inequities and injustice in Canadian society, reflected in the sectors supported by PCH.
  • The pandemic has had disproportionately acute impacts on marginalized communities in Canada – primarily low-wage workers, young people, racialized workers, and women.
  • The pandemic has accelerated the trends that increase the economic vulnerability of artists and athletes, and the sectors that sustain them. The arts, culture, heritage and sport sectors were among the first to suffer from the economic shutdowns in early 2020 and, with some variation among sub-sectors, will be among the last to recover. (Data on impacts available in Annex)
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• At the same time, the crisis has also increased attention and awareness of social issues related to reconciliation, anti-racism and equity, diversity and inclusion, which have taken on greater prominence.
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  • There is rising dialogue about systemic and institutional racism and the intergenerational impacts of social exclusion. Among other events, confirmation of unmarked graves at residential school sites and the ongoing national crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) inquiry have shaped public consciousness around reconciliation, while George Floyd’s murder mainstreamed the Black Lives Matter social movement.
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Advancing Key Commitments – 2021

• To address acute needs, Budget 2021 allocated $1.93 billion to PCH and Canadian Heritage portfolio organizations for measures that include funding for the recovery and reopening of Canada’s arts, culture, heritage and sport sectors to rebuild after the damages sustained during the pandemic.
• The Government’s fall 2021 electoral platform committed to additional support for the arts, culture, heritage and sport sectors including:
  • additional funding for the Canada Media Fund, Canada Music Fund, Canada Book Fund, Telefilm Canada, local journalism and CBC/Radio-Canada, as well as modernizing the institutions and funding tools that support Canada’s audio-visual sector;
  • legislation to reform the Broadcasting Act and changes to the Copyright Act to protect Canadian artists, creators and copyright holders, enable revenue-sharing between news outlets and digital platforms publishing news content, and combat serious forms of harmful online content (i.e., hate speech, terrorist content, content that incites violence, child sexual abuse material and the non-consensual distribution of intimate images).
• The Government’s platform also included key elements at Canadian Heritage to advance reconciliation as well as equity, diversity and inclusion objectives, and to strengthen official languages:
  • continued implementation of the Indigenous Languages Act in partnership with Indigenous communities;
  • a renewed Anti-Racism Strategy; and
  • introducing An Act for the Substantive Equality of French and English and the Strengthening of the Official Languages Act.
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Going Forward: Leveraging PCH’s Mandate to Build Back Better

• As the Government proceeds with implementation of key commitments, PCH is well placed to leverage these to build back better and strengthen social bonds.

1. PCH is the steward of policy and program levers that are widely valued as helping to reinforce bonds of community, regional and national pride, identity and citizenship.

• PCH has an important role in maintaining social bonds that unite communities [REDACTED].
  • Work in this area is intrinsically linked to action across multiple PCH mandate areas and Government-wide priorities:
    • The arts, culture, heritage, and sport sectors play a key role in bringing people together and fostering Canadian identities on both national and regional levels and creating a sense of belonging as communities recover from the pandemic.
    • PCH is also well positioned to contribute through the work of Multiculturalism and Official Languages sectors, the Anti-Racism and Youth Secretariats as well as the Digital Citizen Initiative.

2. COVID-19 recovery within PCH-supported sectors remains uneven [REDACTED].

• The increased pressures on the arts, culture, heritage and sport sectors stress. [REDACTED]
• Opportunities exist to:
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  • PCH has made significant progress on expanding access to programming for Indigenous communities, including through dedicated engagement and greater involvement of Indigenous organizations in decision-making:
    • the co-development and implementation of the Indigenous Languages Act;
    • the Sport for Social Development in Indigenous Communities program;
    • support for the Indigenous Screen Office; and
    • various initiatives at the Canada Council, Telefilm, National Film Board and Library and Archives Canada.

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  • Improvements in disaggregated data collection (e.g.: the General Social Survey, the Census) and inclusive and accessible engagement models (e.g. 2020 Ministerial Town Halls, Anti-Racism Town Halls) are assisting the Department’s capacity to advance more robust and responsive policy development.
  • There is a concerted effort to advance objectives related to equity, diversity and inclusion across the Department’s programs (such as identifying barriers and improving access for marginalized/underserved communities).
  • PCH has begun a departmental transformation and is taking steps to move forward on equity, diversity and inclusion commitments to its workforce, such as ensuring its executive cadre and workforce reflect Canada’s diversity.

Annex: COVID-19 Impacts on Arts, Culture, Heritage and Sport Sectors

• The COVID-19 pandemic has had damaging and lasting impacts on the arts, culture, heritage and sport sectors in Canada, with recovery rates still uneven as of 2021.
  • Between the first and second quarters of 2020, total cultural sector jobs fell from 656,956 to 530,801, with a fall in sectoral GDP from $14.04 billion to $11.9 billion.
  • As of December 2020, after the airline industry, the arts, entertainment and recreation sector represented the hardest-hit area of the economy, losing more than half its value in GDP and accounting for more than a tenth of all job losses.
  • Total actual hours worked in the arts, entertainment and recreation sector declined 36.6% in 2020, compared to 2019. Within the sector, performing arts companies experienced the largest drop in total actual hours worked in 2020 at -60.7%.
  • Within the arts sector, the “performing arts, spectator sports and related industries, and heritage institutions” cluster was the furthest away from recovery in December 2020. At $2.9 billion, it was 61.7% lower than in February 2020. No other industry group experienced a larger decrease, besides air transportation (-87.4%).
  • As of June 2021, some sub-sectors had recovered to within 5% of pre-pandemic job and GDP levels, with specific sectors exceeding pre-pandemic levels (interactive media, for instance). But significant disparities remained – for example, by Q2 2021, in comparison to Q4 2019:
    • GDP and total job figures for the performing arts sub-sector had declined from $725.98M and 68,691 jobs respectively to $263.06M (-64%) and 34,436 jobs (-50%).
    • The festivals and celebrations sub-sector had seen GDP drop from $44.9M to $18.2M (-60%), and total jobs drop from 4,381 to 2,053 (-53%).
    • The visual and applied arts sub-sector saw GDP drop from $50.34M to $39.1M (-22%) and total jobs drop from 2,587 to 2,094
      (-19%).
• There were also magnified, differentiated impacts on excluded communities, reflecting long-standing inequities in Canadian society.
  • Neighbourhoods with a higher proportion of racialized residents have had the highest mortality rates during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Indigenous communities are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, particularly affecting Indigenous elders, the repositories of Indigenous languages and cultural knowledge, due to pre-existing factors (20% of Indigenous people live in overcrowded housing, tuberculosis is 6 times the national rate, higher rates of food insecurity, etc.).