Equitable Treatment for Canadian Artists and Creators:

Canada’s artists and creators continue to face challenges in having government recognize and respect their rights as self-employed workers, access to social benefits, moral and economic rights, and federal labour standards that accommodate non-standard working arrangements.

The CCA is looking to the next potential government to address these issues with concrete and durable solutions.

a) Does your party support the objectives of CCA’s “Fair Tax Treatment of Professional Artists Campaign”, which are:

· To establish a policy that all professional artists will be deemed to be carrying on a business for purposes of their artistic income (independent contractor status) unless

- in the case where there is no collective bargaining relationship, an engager and the artist enter into a contract of service (employer-employee relationship) that is explicit and unambiguous, or
- an engager and an association representing a group of artists negotiate a provision that artists governed by a collective agreement are in a contract of service relationship.

· To have a community-agreed test of “professionalism” replace the “reasonable expectation of profit” test now used by the Canada Revenue Agency.

b) Does your party support the development of a program by which self-employed workers, dependent contractors, and Canadians in other non-standard work could access full social benefits without the loss of their self-employment status?

c) Does your party intend to introduce further revisions to the Copyright Act? Will your party commit to enacting legislation that enhances the moral and economic rights of creators and copyright owners?

Back to Federal Election advocacy 2006 page.