LANG Committee Report

I. Arts and culture

1. 2008-2013 Roadmap Investments: Initiatives and success stories

Under the Roadmap, the government recognized arts and culture as 1 of the 5 priority areas and allocated $23.5 million to the sector over 5 years. That investment was divided between two main initiatives: the Cultural Development Fund and the Music Showcases for Artists from Official Language Minority Communities.

The Fédération culturelle canadienne-française (FCCF) said it was generally satisfied with the Roadmap investments:

We would like to thank the government for identifying the arts and culture sector as one of the five priorities in the current Roadmap. Recognizing the priority was a step in the right direction. Moreover, there seems to be consensus on the importance of arts and culture in the Roadmap, since several groups that have appeared before this committee over the last month have identified this sector as being one of the most important ways to promote the learning, practice and visibility of the language, as well is the rootedness of the people of our communities in a pan-Canadian Francophone space.[238]

1.1 Cultural Development Fund (Canadian Heritage)

The Cultural Development Fund, which is managed by Canadian Heritage, received $14 million over the term of the Roadmap. The purpose of the Fund is to support “… cultural actions to foster the vitality of official language minority communities. The Fund also aims to promote the contribution these communities make to the cultural and artistic enrichment of Canada.”[239]

According to the Fédération culturelle canadienne-française (FCCF), the Cultural Development Fund has resulted in many success stories:

[…] 110 community projects have been funded. The Cultural Development Fund has also funded priority projects in collaboration with the provincial governments of Ontario, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The fund’s leverage effect is significant. Indeed, it can be said that one of the fund’s many … success stories is the creation by the Ontario Arts Council of two new pilot programs in visual arts and media arts at the Franco-Ontarian Arts Office …, We repeat that this additional injection of $14 million was greatly appreciated.[240]

The Fund has also benefited Quebec’s Anglophone artists. In the view of the English Language Arts Network (ELAN) and the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), the Cultural Development Fund is one of the Roadmap programs that have had the most positive impact on Quebec’s Anglophone communities. It was instrumental in the Recognizing Artists: Enfin visibles! project, which features Anglophone artists and their work. The Fund has also stimulated artistic and cultural production in the regions and promoted access to artistic products outside Montréal. Stakeholders also view the program as a structural element for Quebec’s booming Anglophone arts scene:

They’ve done some interesting things because they’ve brought arts culture into the regions. It’s an important piece of work to democratize out of Montréal the artists and dance and so on.[241]

The FCCF criticized the Cultural Development Fund on two counts. First, the Fund provides financial support for one-time projects. The FCCF would like the Fund to be designed to offer multi-year funding:

This type of funding does not allow for the creation of lasting real benefits. The fund the arts and culture sector really needs is a fund that strengthens existing arts and culture organizations by providing them with stable and ongoing multi-year operating funding and by making it possible to support all the stages of the cultural continuum.

Second, the FCCF noted a challenge with regard to accountability:

As mentioned by the representatives from the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada regarding the Roadmap as a whole, there also exists a challenge in terms of transparency with respect to the CDF [Cultural Devlopment Fund]. Indeed, it is difficult to obtain access to clear and complete data about the fund.[242]

1.2 Music Showcases Program for Artists from Official Language Minority Communities (Canadian Heritage)

The Music Showcases Program for Artists from OLMC is the second arts and culture initiative administered by Canadian Heritage. The purpose of this $4.5 million program is to “… give these artists the opportunity to produce at the local, regional and national levels.”[243] The Program was designed to promote the development of music careers and access to musical performances in the minority language.

According to the FCCF, the Music Showcases Program has had much success with OLMC:

The program is greatly appreciated both by the Alliance nationale de l’industrie musicale and by the artists working in the song and music industry. Since 2008, it has funded 171 projects for a total amount of $1,623,404.

The program has fulfilled its mandate in all respects. A portion of the funding is allocated to events enabling artists from Francophone and Acadian communities to offer a showcase of their work. The result is clear and measurable: the number of shows by our artists has seen a marked increase. Several of the artists are currently developing national or international careers, among them Damien Robitaille in Ontario, Surveillantes from Manitoba and Radio Radio in Acadia. This increase in artist tours has also ensured that the people of our communities have more access to music performances in their language, facilitating the emergence of the strong and necessary cultural identity….[244]

The FCCF told the Committee it had been consulted several times concerning the Music Showcases: “We were consulted often, particularly about the implementation of programs like the Music Showcases Initiatives for Artists from Minority Official Language Communities.”[245]

With regard to governance, the FCCF said that excellent accountability practices had been put in place for this program: “In some cases, the transparency is excellent. We mentioned the music showcases program, for example, that allows us to follow the investments to the dollar.”[246]

2. Evidence and recommendations

2.1 Arts and culture priorities of the Francophone minority communities

The FCCF comprises 7 national artistic organizations representing theatre, visual arts, song/music, publishing and the media arts; 13 provincial and territorial organizations dedicated to their regions’ cultural and artistic development, and a platform consisting of 3 regional presentation networks engaged in promoting and increasing the circulation of our artists and audience development across the country.

In June 2011, the FCCF held the forum Être artiste dans la Francophonie canadienne : Forum sur les pratiques artistiques, which was attended by 200 artists and cultural professionals. The resulting Strategic Plan 2011‑2014 identified 5 priority areas: representation; cooperation and networking; development of the arts, culture and cultural industries; communications; and governance.

For the purposes of a future Government of Canada official languages initiative, the FCCF recommends introducing a comprehensive arts and culture support strategy that addresses five key areas: cultural development; arts infrastructure; artists; cultural industries and access to the arts.[247]

The FCCF advocates a multi-year funding model to support the artistic and cultural development of the Francophone minority communities.

The Committee urges the Department of Canadian Heritage to include the priority areas identified by the FCCF in establishing its departmental arts and culture priorities for the Francophone minority communities.

2.2 Arts and culture priorities of the Anglophone minority communities

The English Language Arts Network (ELAN) identified three artistic development priorities. There is a general desire to make Anglophone artists more visible within Anglophone communities, more visible to Quebec’s Francophone majority and across English Canada.[248] With regard to cooperation with the Francophone majority, Quebec’s Anglophone artists view themselves as building bridges between the two communities. They are mostly bilingual and want to contribute to Quebec and Canadian society through their art. Anglophone artists are concerned that the artistic vitality of the Anglophone communities is perceived by some as a threat to French language and culture in Quebec.[249]

ELAN also wants to improve artists’ access to their audience and, at the same time, the access of Anglophone communities to the performing and theatre arts.This aspect is particularly important to communities located outside the major centres.

The community is counting on the economic benefits of a booming artistic sector. The Committee is pleased to learn that ELAN will be carrying out a research project funded by Industry Canada that will lay the groundwork for the artistic development of Quebec’s Anglophone communities for the next five years.

The Committee urges the Department of Canadian Heritage to include ELAN’s three artistic development areas for action in its departmental priorities for the artistic and cultural development of the Anglophone minority communities.

The Committee wishes to note the excellent cooperative effort being made in arts and culture. Through Canadian Heritage support, the FCCF and ELAN are members of a working group involving all federal partners in arts and culture. The group recently invited federal economic institutions such as Industry Canada and Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions to meet with the OLMC to determine how they can get involved in their artistic and cultural activities.

Recommendation 23

That the Department of Canadian Heritage, in a future horizontal official languages initiative, maintain its support for arts and culture in the official language minority communities. That it continue its interdepartmental coordination work with the federal economic institutions to develop the arts sector and cultural industries in the official language minority communities.

2.3 Arts, culture and education

The Fédération culturelle canadienne-française (FCCF) informed the Committee that the Roadmap had also had an indirect impact on arts and culture, particularly through initiatives targeting education.

For Francophones, the Roadmap helped establish the Table de l’Axe Action culturelle et identitaire (TAACI). That issue table puts education professionals in touch with arts and culture specialists and, among other things, has produced the Trousse du passeur culturel kit: “This nationwide project has made it possible to offer training to all Francophone school principals across Canada, thus enabling them to better integrate arts and culture into their educational projects.”[250]

Designed for teaching staff, the kit promotes knowledge of community and regional artistic resources as well as the integration of arts and culture in the classroom. Like other projects, the kit is part of a pan-Canadian initiative of the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) promoting the cultural approach of teaching.[251]

Similarly, the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) suggested that a future Government of Canada official languages initiative could pair arts and culture with the education community to promote official languages along with identity and community development:

When I mentioned a beautiful success story that was part of the Roadmap, I was referring to the Cultural Development Fund. If there is something that we should keep, it would be the fund pertaining to schools. We have to be able to see how we can work in our schools to try to show young people the importance of their contribution to Quebec, Canadian and regional heritage.[252]

On this subject, the ELAN explained that while there is an excellent Francophone cultural program in Quebec schools, there are deficiencies on the Anglophone side. The Committee is delighted that Quebec’s Ministère de l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport has granted ELAN funding so that it can identify the problem and take appropriate courses of action.[253]

In view of the above, the Committee recommends:

Recommendation 24

That the arts and culture component of the Government of Canada’s future horizontal initiative for official languages include initiatives that enable arts and culture to be better integrated into the educational projects of educational institutions of the official language minority communities.