CAC advocates to extend the CERB program for arts workers

On learning that the government was introducing a bill to introduce changes to the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) this week, the Coalition took the opportunity to encourage all parties to extend the benefit beyond its current end date of October 3, 2020. In letters sent to government Ministers as well as to critics in each of the Opposition parties, the Coalition urged parliamentarians to both extend the number of weeks to which an unemployed contractor is eligible to receive CERB and to extend the length of the program itself. Based on data from our own and other sector surveys we believe that it will be many months before arts workers will be able to return to the level of work they had before the pandemic.

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June 10, 2020

The Honourable Bill Morneau, Minister of Finance
The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Heritage
The Honourable Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Employment, Workforce
Development and Disability Inclusion
The Honourable Diane Lebouthillier, Minister of National Revenue
VIA E-Mail

Dear Ministers:
We write to you on behalf of the Canadian Arts Coalition/La coalition canadienne des arts to urge you to extend the Canada Emergency Response Benefit beyond the current end date of October 3, 2020. Not only is it critical to extend the CERB, it is essential that the current 16 week limit be extended, or many working in the arts sector will end up going without wages for months. We ask that CERB be extended until such time as arts and culture organizations and industries can safely re-open their operations and effectively engage with audiences and participants.

The Canadian Arts Coalition is a pan-arts, pan-Canadian voluntary movement with a fifteen-year history of advocating for strong federal arts and culture policy and investment. Collectively, we represent over 5,970 arts and culture enterprises, over 15,000 individual artists working in all disciplines, and 1000 affiliated supporters.

A current survey of our members confirms the fact that the CERB has been vitally important to artists and arts workers; it is not too strong to state that during a time when many of their income sources have disappeared, CERB has been a lifeline. Furthermore, as many arts workers accessed CERB in the first months, they will hit the end of the 16 weeks in July or August and yet, according to current re-opening regulations, they will be unable to return to work for many more months.

Artists and arts workers are highly motivated to create and share their work but they are coping with the indefinite postponement or outright cancellation of work. As Statistics Canada’s May data reflects, they were among the first to be affected by COVID-19 related closures and the loss of work in the sector remains much higher than in the general economy (down 24.7% by the end of May compared to 14.1% for all Canadian jobs). An ArtsPond survey of 995 Canadian arts workers (69% of whom are self- employed), revealed that, by May 25th, they had lost a total of 28,491 “gigs” – or an average of 36 per worker, resulting in average income loss of $25,189.

Arts and culture enterprises (whether in the not-for-profit or commercial realms) are themselves grappling with uncertainty about re-opening timelines and protocols, as well as public sentiments regarding attendance: in a recent Nanos survey, 73% of Canadians expressed concerns about returning to indoor cultural events within the next five months, and 81% cited the availability of a vaccine as the most important factor in their decision to return.

We ask that you support an extension of the program, if necessary with modifications, to best fit sectors of the economy that will be slower to re-open. Workers in our sector are motivated to create, express, and share their work with Canadians again. Yet a full return to work will not be possible during the current life of the CERB program. If CERB ends, it will be devastating for the arts and culture sector.

Thank you for your consideration

Yours truly,

Sarah Iley & Katherine Carleton, C.M.

On behalf of the Canadian Arts Coalition Steering Committee