April 16, 2024
MONTRÉAL, APRIL 16, 2024 — Festivals and Major Events Canada (FAME) is breathing a sigh of relief upon reading the 2024-2025 Federal Budget. FAME is pleased at the increase in funding for the Canada Arts Presentation Fund (CAPF), which is slightly more than the amount allocated since 2019-2020 but considers that the Trudeau government has not fully met its expectations.
The good news, however, is that the $8M reinvestment made in 2019-2020 to the CAPF is to be extended again, this time until April 2026, effectively becoming a $15.5M reinvestment.
This sum, however, has still not been integrated into the CAPF base budget, which has stood at around $32M since 2008. Despite this, $48M will be invested in 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 (while FAME was seeking $61.5M). By proceeding in this way, the federal government is condemning the cultural community to a perpetual battle for renewed funding, year after year or term after term. This practice also puts these investments at greater risk of not being renewed once they come to term, with or without a change in government, say festival and event representatives.
FAME is even more puzzled by the Minister of Finance’s decision, given that the Minister of Canadian Heritage herself acknowledged in a letter a few weeks ago that “the uncertainty surrounding the renewal of temporary funding for these programs since 2019 adds to the enormous financial pressures the sector is already experiencing due to rising costs linked to inflation and labour shortages.”
A Boost for Ontario Events
FAME acknowledges the $38M investment over three years for the Toronto International Film Festival and the Shaw Festival Theater. While this investment is welcome and justified in the current context, it also demonstrates the relative paucity of the Canada Arts Presentation Fund budget, which supports hundreds of clients with approximately $47M per year.
Security Infrastructure Program Funding
FAME welcomes the increase in funding for the Security Infrastructure Program. For many years, associations have been making the case for access to this program, as ensuring the safety of festivalgoers has become extremely costly, particularly in the case of certain events such as 2SLGBTQI+ Pride events. They are asking to be eligible as soon as possible.
A Challenging Context
Since the Just for Laughs Group filed for protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act and put its festivals on hold, the spotlight has been on the difficulties experienced across Canada in the events sector. FAME reports that a number of festivals and events are facing difficult decisions such as having to scale back their activities or put them on hold altogether.
Over the past year, associations have been calling for the one-off sums granted since 2019 to be permanently integrated into the base budgets of both the Canada Arts Presentation Fund and Building Communities through Arts and Heritage. As part of a coalition of over thirty Canadian groups (#FutureOfLIVE), FAME also called for a real and historic catch-up, similar to what was done several years ago at CBC/Radio-Canada and the Canada Council for the Arts. FAME was seeking increases of $21M to CAPF and $9M to BCAH, in addition to the temporary sums renewed on a piecemeal basis since 2019.
