Submission

The Cultural Sector

The Canadian cultural sector is large, dynamic, highly skilled and educated. According to the Culture Statistics Program of Statistics Canada, more than 500,000 Canadians work in the cultural labour force. Almost 70% of these individuals hold a university degree, are twice as likely to be self-employed, and are typically highly motivated, entrepreneurial and creative. Cultural workers contribute an estimated $ 33 billion to the economy ( 3% of the gross domestic product) and comprise 5% of the workforce. Further the number of people working in cultural fields has grown more than twice the rate of the total workforce over the past twenty years.

The Cultural Human Resources Council (CHRC)

Created in 1995 to strengthen the Canadian cultural workforce, CHRC is one of 28 sectoral councils supported by Human Resource Development Canada (HRDC), CHRC's membership spans the country and its members are as diverse as the disciplines they represent

The Cultural Human Resource Council CHRC) strives to be at the centre of vision and forward thinking in the area of cultural human resources development. CHRC brings together representatives of arts disciplines and cultural industries in the cultural sector to address the training and career needs of cultural workers - artists, creators, technical staff, managers and all others engaged professionally in the sector, including the self-employed. Its mission is:

"To strengthen the Canadian cultural workforce by providing leadership and innovative solutions to human resource issues and to better the HR environment within the cultural sector."

What CHRC Does

CHRC undertakes project development, career management tools, internship support, job recruitment, networking, information and research and advocacy on behalf of artists and cultural workers. With general membership and board members drawn from within the cultural sector, CHRC's work is guided by the priority needs identified by sub-sector studies and baseline labour force data.

The Canadian Cultural Labour Force and Federal Labour Standards

The Canadian cultural sector is a dynamic and diverse element of the national labour market. Working in many areas of culture from the theatre to book publishing and new media, the cultural sector represents a source of livelihood for over 500,000 Canadians. The cultural labour force has experienced one of the highest levels of growth over a sustained period of twenty years. While the average cultural worker is highly educated, income levels persistently fall below the levels of comparably trained workers.

The strength of the cultural labour force is the commitment to creativity, innovation and continual upgrading of skills. The output of the sector speaks for itself: Canadian artists, creators and professionals are recognized for the quality of their work at home and around the world. In order to succeed, the cultural sector has fashioned a unique approach to managing the challenges and opportunities they face as non-standard workers. Globalization has proven to be a spur to developing foreign markets and audiences for Canadian artistic and cultural talent and goods.

While the majority of cultural workers fall under provincial labour jurisdiction, a considerable number is within the federal labour framework. This includes those who work for broadcasters, creating, producing and providing technical support to the generation of Canadian content; or work for other federal cultural institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, National Arts Centre, the National Gallery of Canada, or other national museums and agencies.

As a result of the nature of work in the sector, cultural workers will work simultaneously in both federal and provincial jurisdictions. This is due in part to the unique blending of employment and self-employment opportunities seized upon by cultural workers to generate income. While 39% of the cultural labour force describe themselves as self-employed, a significant number of these pursue secondary employment to earn a living wage.

Therefore, a writer or visual artist may be self-employed for the purposes of creating and selling their work, while at the same time function as an employee teaching at a college, university or school. The separation of each distinctive source of income has proven to be challenging when dealing with issues like the ownership of intellectual property and copyright, taxation and access to social benefits.

It is this blend of employment/self-employment that sets the cultural sector apart from the rest of the Canadian labour market. This situation has resulted in many challenges for the cultural worker, from taxation, ownership of copyright and intellectual property rights, to accessing Employment Insurance benefits.

The cultural sector has always adapted to the challenges of conforming to standards and legislation that are firmly rooted in the industrial labour model. It can be argued that the cultural labour force is among the vanguard in moving from an industrial model to an post-industrial vision of the work force. It has successfully worked with the federal government and some provincial governments in developing innovative approaches to managing labour issues that better reflect the specific realties of the cultural labour force. Despite these achievements, much remains to be done.

In addressing the Consultation Paper, Modernizing Federal Labour Standards, the Cultural Human Resource Council will share our concerns and aspirations for a modernization of federal labour standards and other related federal programs and legislation. The Cultural Human Resource Council also welcomes this opportunity to put forward some insights into innovations developed in the cultural sector that might be applicable to other sectors of the Canadian labour market.

Non-Standard Work in the Cultural Labour Force - A Post-Industrial Model

It can be safely said that most work in the cultural sector is non-standard. This is not a new development, but has been a stable feature of the life of artists and cultural workers in Canada for decades.

Performing artists, working in theatre, film and television were the first to see the benefits in the development of a collective approach to securing better conditions of work as self-employed individuals. To this end several important cultural labour organizations were created to provide a unified voice for artists in their dealings with producers and other engagers of artistic talent. This was the genesis of organizations such as Association of Canadian Television and Radio Artists, Union des artistes in Quebec, Canadian Actors' Equity Association and the development of the Canadian arm of the Association of Federated Musicians of the United States and Canada.

There were several important problems associated with the development of these organizations. As a common front of self-employed individuals seeking to establish basic levels of income, working conditions and benefits, they were technically afoul of the Competition Act which considers such developments as conspiracies to control market forces. Under the provisions of the Act were any producer or group of producers to object to the demands of such organizations, they could ( and did) file a complaint with the Competition Bureau which in turn would ( and did) ask the RCMP to investigate.

This legal problem hung like the sword of Damocles over these organizations which were seeking to secure better income and working conditions for their membership.

Another problem which has continued to haunt workers in the cultural sector is found in the interpretation of the Income Tax Act. Some producers challenged the self-employed status of whole categories of workers, sometimes with great success. These challenges further limited the power of these cultural labour organizations to successfully secure additional benefits for their membership from producers and engagers.

In 1982 Canada became a signatory to the Belgrade Recommendations on the Status of the Artist developed by UNESCO. Among these recommendations was the redesign of legislation to allow self-employed artists to enjoy the full powers of collective representation within the law. Recommendations were also made regarding the extension of social benefits, intellectual property rights, training and other measures to reflect the status of artists as important contributors to national life.

Canada first seriously examined how it could implement some of the measures from the Belgrade Recommendations in 1986, when the Honourable Marcel Masse commissioned Paul Siren ( founding Director of the Association of Canadian Radio and Television Artists) and Gratien Gelinas ( celebrated Quebec playwright and actor, and a member of the Board of Union des Artistes) to consult widely with artists and arts and cultural organization on the best way to address the Belgrade Recommendations.

Following the release the Report of the Status of the Artist Task Force, the Minister created the Canadian Advisory Committee on the Status of the Artist. The Minister asked the Committee to confer with the pertinent federal departments and agencies on moving forward with measures to enhance the economic and social status of Canadian artists and creators. The measures developed by the Committee and the government would clearly address those artists, creators and cultural workers in areas of federal labour lurisdiction.

Included in the shopping list of the Committee were the resolution of the legal status of collective representation for self-employed individuals, clarification of tax status issues for artists and cultural workers in non-standard situations, and the extension of social benefits such as employment insurance and pension benefits.

In 1992, Canada became the first signatory state of the Belgrade Recommendations to enact Status of the Artist legislation. The new act recognizes the right of self-employed artists and cultural workers to bargain collectively within the law when dealing with employers under federal labor jurisdiction.. It also created the Canadian Artists and Producers Professional Relations Tribunal to administer the collective representation process between producers and the cultural labour organizations. Through parallel changes to the Income Tax Act, the status of the artist initiative brought some modest tax measures to address some concerns regarding employment costs.

The Canadian status of the artist legislation was an important innovation in addressing the needs of artists and cultural workers in the non-standard labour market. While a step forward, the legislation has not proved to be a panacea for the cultural labour force.

The Cultural Human Resource Council recognizes that these revisions are limited to workers in areas of federal labour jurisdiction. It feels that the model of federal status of the artists legislation and the Canadian Artists and Producers Professional Relations Tribunal may well apply to other areas of the work force in federal jurisdiction. The model is still in its infancy and it is not without some problems, however, it does represent a progressive and innovative approach to managing labour relations in the post-industrial labour force.

To ensure that the cultural sector would be able to fully test this model, it would be useful to see the provincial governments adopt a similar approach to dealing with artists and cultural workers in their jurisdictions. So far only Quebec has made significant progress in the development of comprehensive legislation for the cultural work force. Saskatchewan has a status of the artist policy and Ontario is in the exploratory phase of examining similar measures.

The cultural sector continues to face challenges to the self-employed status of artists and cultural workers. Using the traditional tests, Revenue Canada and lately the Canada Revenue Agency has contested the self-employed status of hundreds of artists and cultural workers. While the status of the artist legislation was intended to resolve some of these difficulties, Canada Revenue Agency continues to use the traditional tests ( developed for the industrial labour market) to assign a tax status to artists and cultural workers.

The issue of reasonable expectation of profit also has created difficulties for some artists who cannot earn a livelihood from the proceeds of their work. This is largely why many artists and cultural workers find themselves simultaneously to be employees, self-employed and dependent contractors. It is a situation that has caused grave aggravation to tax officials and cultural workers.

The Cultural Human Resource Council does not consider the distinctions between employee, self-employed and dependent contractor should be obstacles to equal benefits and protections in federal labour standards. Self-employed workers should receive the benefits and protections afforded by federal labour standards without the loss of their self-employed status. This is a cardinal tenet for self-employed artists and arts professionals.

The pattern of non-standard working conditions continues to spread throughout the Canadian labour market with a continued growth in self-employment or simultaneous engagement which could be described as each of three types. It is an inevitability that federal policies and standards must accommodate.

It is the view of the Cultural Human Resource Council that all workers be treated equally under federal labour standards. Such a move would better reflect the profound changes in the Canadian labour market and perhaps by better accommodating these distinctions spur greater productivity and more efficiencies in the labour market. The inclusion of the self-employed should also be accompanied by an extension of social benefits to all workers, including Employment Insurance.

The federal government is in a good position to work with the provinces to develop relatively uniform approaches to adapting their labour standards to address the emerging needs of the post-industrial labour market.

One of the great mysteries of federal policy is the fact that the arts and cultural industries have never been considered to be included in the federal innovation and productivity agenda. Considering the cultural sector makes a contribution of $33 billion to the Gross Domestic Product and the foreign demand for Canadian talent and cultural products continues to grow, the cultural sector would be fertile ground in which to bolster Canadian innovation in the arts and cultural industries.

Human Resource Challenges in the Cultural Labour Force

Like other parts of the Canadian labour market, the cultural sector is confronting challenges stemming from the changing demographics of Canada. Among these challenges are:

• an aging work force
• retention and succession issues I
• increasingly cultural diverse character of Canada
• skills development and upgrading resulting from technological change and globalization and the continued growth of non-standard work in the cultural labour market.
• benefits and compensation

Many of Canada's arts organizations and cultural enterprises were founded in the 1950's and 60's by artists and cultural professionals dedicated to the development of professional theatres, book publishing, training institutions, art galleries, orchestras, ballet companies, sound recording companies, the production of Canadian film, video and broadcasting.

Those "creator" lead organizations are now facing the challenge of seeing their founders retire and must address the task of rejuvenating the leadership and staff of these organizations. While it is true that national training institutions and universities are graduating hundreds of individuals who have completed studies in arts management, few are prepared to assume leadership of these organizations in an ever more competitive and complex environment. The lack of benefits, adequate levels of compensation and the desire to maintain a better work/life balance is often out of sync with the realities of the sector.

Until adequate funding is available to support the operations of arts organizations and cultural enterprises, the issue of adequate compensation will remain an impediment to fostering a longer-term solution to the succession issue. It must also be cited as a key obstacle to the retention of talented staff once they enter the cultural sector.

Canada's population is becoming ever more diverse - a trend that is expected to continue into the future. This diversity is at once both a national asset and a real challenge for the cultural sector. With an ever increasing pressure to increase earned revenue, arts organizations and cultural enterprises are required to ensure that their programming is relevant to a diverse audience base and that talent in all parts of the organization is a true reflection of the diversity of Canadian communities.

Finally, the non-standard working environment in the cultural sector requires a constant process of skills upgrading and development to ensure that workers can meet the ever-increasing complexity of the technologies and business challenges of the contemporary labour market. The federal government must be able to encourage such skill upgrading and development while allowing the worker to earn an income during the training process. Consideration should be given to allowing access to Employment Insurance benefits to support workers during their skills development or upgrading training. This at once, encourages a more skilled labour market and fosters the potential for increased productivity and prosperity for Canadian workers,

Recommendations for Modernizing Federal Labour Standards and Increasing Productivity in the Cultural Labour Force

In concluding this presentation to the Federal Labour Standards Review, the Cultural Human Resource Council will revisit some of the practical steps that can and should be taken to modernize federal labour standards. It is our hope that these measures can be seen as practical and attainable steps to securing better conditions for the post-industrial labour force.

1. Ensure that all self-employed, employees, professionals and dependent contractors in federal labour jurisdiction enjoy access to the same benefits and protections without the loss of self-employed status for the purposes of the Income Tax Act.
2. Foster greater harmonization of provincial labour standards with the modernized federal labour standards, including status of the artist legislation.
3. Ensure that coherence exists between labour standards that treat all workers equally and the federal income tax system,
4. Develop new strategies to provide social security benefits to all workers with no threat to their status as self-employed artists and arts professionals,
5. Include the cultural sector as part of the federal government's innovation agenda,
6. Test the status of the artist model for collective representation with other sectors of the Canadian labour market,
7. Adapt all federal labour standards to the post-industrial labour market realities, and enjoin your colleagues in other government departments and agencies to modify their policies and programs to reflect this reality,
8. Examine how the federal government can provide support to the skills development and upgrading of workers in the cultural sector and the general labour market.

The Cultural Human Resource Council appreciates this opportunity to contribute our perspective to the Federal Labour Standards Review.