PASO/OPSA - Protect Canadian Cultural Sovereignty: Recommendations for the Government of Ontario

January 28th 2025

Protect Canadian Cultural Sovereignty:

Recommendations for the Government of Ontario

The Provincial Arts Service Organizations of Ontario represent and support creative workers, artists, and organizations engaged in all artistic disciplines that create and disseminate the arts in Ontario. Our organizations work together to strengthen the arts culture environment to benefit the millions of Ontarians, Canadians, and visitors from around the world who experience the arts across the province.

Ontario’s arts and culture sector contributes $27 billion to the provincial GDP, and provides almost 300,000 jobs–more jobs than in real estate, auto-manufacturing, forestry and mining combined.^[1] Our province is home to 81,000 professional artists, 40% of the artists in Canada. Arts and culture tourism itself contributes $10 billion in provincial GDP, and over $4 billion in tax revenue.^[2] The average arts and culture trip has nearly triple the economic impact of non-arts and culture trips. Attending performances and visiting galleries are key cultural tourism activities.^[3]

While the sector generates powerful economic return, the people who power the arts in Ontario are economically vulnerable, and U.S.-imposed export tariffs would exacerbate their challenges. Ontario’s artists are already at significant disadvantage, with a median personal total income of $29,600, 41% less than other workers. In Toronto, for example, despite median income levels of all workers rising by 13%, between 2016 and 2021 artists’ incomes declined by 28%.^[4] Arts workers, too, earn disproportionately less than their non-arts counterparts. In 2022, the job vacancy rate in Ontario’s arts, heritage, and entertainment sector was 8.4.%. Nationally, with an average hourly wage offered of $18.40, wages for jobs in the arts were the third lowest among twenty industry sectors. Highly skilled and educated arts workers can no longer afford to work in the sector.

In 2022 Ontario had a large cultural trade deficit of $1.3 billion, one of the largest provincial cultural trade deficits in Canada. Beyond the sector’s economic impact, the arts are central to fostering social and cultural cohesion. They bolster a sense of belonging, and they facilitate community connection and engagement. In response to potential tariffs placed on Canadian exports, and to resist the American cultural imperialism that has grown with the digital age, it’s critical that the Government of Ontario address the situation with the urgency it demands, and protect the future of Canadian cultural sovereignty.

On behalf of Ontario’s artists, arts workers, and organizations, we urge the next Government of Ontario to act on the following priorities:

Increase funding at the Ontario Arts Council by $40 million annually

The Ontario Arts Council (OAC) is the economic lifeblood of the province’s arts and culture sector. By disseminating investments through a peer-adjudication process, the OAC’s methods are efficient, accessible, and enable strong return on investment. Organizations that receive annual support from the OAC alone contribute $1 billion to the provincial GDP. In 2024-25, a total investment of $37 million will help 560 organizations to generate over $980 million in additional annual revenues.

Despite the demonstrated impact of arts investment through the OAC, annual baseline funding for the OAC has been frozen since 2009. This lack of investment, set against rapid increases in inflation and rising cost of living–and now a potential trade war–is exacerbating the precarity experienced by hundreds of thousands of creative professionals who live and work in the province.

An increased investment of $40 million annually will:

Support sole-proprietorships, small creative businesses and start-ups, and organizations across the province to increase earned revenue;

Enhance local economies through OAC’s investment focus on Northern, Southwestern, and Eastern communities;

Increase arts and culture tourism, and the economic impact it generates;

Generate new tax revenue and add tens of thousands of new jobs;

Enable efficient, responsive, province-wide sectoral investments throughout a time of economic uncertainty.

Strengthen the Status of Ontario’s Artists Act

The Status of Ontario’s Artists Act (2007) recognizes that artists make contributions to Ontario’s economy and quality of life, defines the occupation of professional artist, and includes several broad, voluntary commitments for the government to support artists and the arts and culture sector.^[5]

While the legislation is helpful in demonstrating a basic commitment to the arts and culture sector, additional provisions can improve the labour environment–and subsequently the socioeconomic conditions–for Ontario’s self-employed artists by providing a framework for their legal and economic rights.

The federal Status of the Artist Act supports the relations between artists and producers and ensures the protection of their basic legal and economic rights. Other provinces have enacted similar legislation; for example, Quebec recently passed significant improvements to its Status of the Artist legislation.

Addressing sectoral challenges

In Ontario, self-employed artists are often presented with insufficient contracts and agreements. When these agreements do not include standard provisions that outline, for example, the use of intellectual property, or the payment of artist fees, challenges arise that result in unnecessary inefficiencies for both parties. A significant portion of labour issues impacting self-employed artists could be addressed with a proper legislative framework.

Supporting artists’ incomes

While unions and trade associations like Canadian Actors Equity Association (CAEA), the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television, and Radio Artists (ACTRA) and the Canadian Federation of Musicians (CFM) are positioned to uphold industry standard fees and bargain collective agreements, self-employed artists in other disciplines are unable to access this level of labour support. Artist associations including Canadian Artists Representation/le front des artistes canadiens (CARFAC), Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists, and the Independent Media Arts Alliance, establish industry standard fees for artists working in their corresponding disciplines, but without the proper recognition are not positioned to bargain on behalf of their respective memberships.

We recommend the next Government of Ontario conduct an evaluation and consultation process with the goal to strengthen the Status of Ontario’s Artists Act.

Increase access to arts spaces by facilitating cross-sector partnerships to utilize underused commercial spaces

Background

The compound effect of artists’ low wages, decades of stagnating public investment in the arts sector, and the rising cost of living and doing business results in significantly decreased access to critical creation, production, presentation, and administration space for artists and arts organizations.

Meanwhile, many sectors are experiencing major changes in how they utilize office space, with more employees working remotely, or in a hybrid arrangement. In 2016, 7.1% of Canadians worked mostly from home. While this percentage peaked at almost 25% during the pandemic, in 2024 almost 19% of Canadian workers continue to work mostly from home.^[6] According to a 2023 survey, 62% of Canadian employers are using a hybrid working model, and 52 per cent of employers said they intend to keep the same amount of office space, while 27 per cent said they need less space.^[7] Given these shifts in the labour environment, it’s not surprising that over 20% of Toronto’s office space is available for lease.^[8] This trend has also raised concerns about the effect of remote work on local economies.

Opportunities for cross-sectoral impact

By providing incentives to companies and organizations holding empty and underutilized office space, the Government of Ontario can facilitate partnerships across sectors, while increasing availability of and access to “meanwhile” spaces. The Provincial Arts Service Organizations of Ontario are well positioned to consult with the government and with the private sector on logistical elements like identifying appropriate mediums for various spaces, short-term lease agreements, and how to facilitate positive and productive environments that bring together artists and other workers. As colleagues in the tech industry are well aware, facilitating intentional collisions incubates a myriad of downstream impacts and opportunities for both artistic and industry leaders.

Similar initiatives are being piloted in other provinces. In Vancouver, for example, a former motel has been transformed into The City Centre Artist Lodge offering 79 low-cost work-only artist spaces that prioritize underrepresented and marginalized artists.^[9] But creating limited-time studio space for artists within occupied but underutilized office spaces can be facilitated with greater ease and minimal resources.

On behalf of:

Alliance culturelle de l’Ontario

Artist-Run Centres & Collectives of Ontario (ARCCO)

ArtsBuild Ontario

Bureau des regroupements des artistes visuels de l’Ontario (BRAVO)

Canadian Artists’ Representation / le front des artistes canadiens (CARFAC) Ontario

Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario (CPAMO)

Dance Ontario

Dance Umbrella of Ontario

Galeries Ontario / Ontario Galleries

Indigenous Curatorial Collective / Collectif des commissaires autochtones (ICCA)

Media Arts Network of Ontario (MANO)