of fund­ing cuts made by the gov­ern­ment since 2006, a record that we believe reflects a dis­turb­ing lack of under­stand­ing, vision and strat­egy for this vital sector.

A Green Gov­ern­ment will draw Canada’s cul­tural sec­tor to the cen­tre of its econ­omy strat­egy. We will increase and sta­bi­lize fund­ing to our major cul­tural agen­cies and insti­tu­tions, and we will estab­lish sta­ble base fund­ing for

com­mu­nity arts pro­grams and facil­i­ties across Canada at a set per­cent­age of the fed­eral bud­get. Our goal will be annual fund­ing increases that are com­men­su­rate with increases for other crit­i­cal sec­tors like health, trans­port and energy.

In our plat­form the Green Party is com­mit­ted to 450 mil­lion dol­lars in sta­ble base­fund­ing for the CBC over the next three years. We are also com­mit­ted to cre­at­ing a Munic­i­pal Super­fund with 900 mil­lion dol­lars in ded­i­cated fund­ing for sports, recre­ational and cul­tural pro­grams and facilities.

The Lib­eral Party rec­og­nizes that the cul­tural sec­tor is a major part of the Cana­dian econ­omy. Accord­ing to a Con­fer­ence Board study, cul­ture gen­er­ates more than $80 bil­lion in direct and indi­rect eco­nomic ben­e­fits every year, and cre­ates 1.1 mil­lion jobs. The Lib­eral Party also rec­og­nizes that the Canada Coun­cil for the Arts is a major force in sup­port­ing work­ing artists.

A Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will increase invest­ments in the arts sec­tor by dou­bling the annual bud­get of the Canada Coun­cil for the Arts, from $180 mil­lion to $360 mil­lion over the next four years. A Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will also restore the Pro­mart and TradeR­outes cul­tural pro­mo­tion pro­grams and increase their fund­ing to $25 mil­lion annu­ally, start­ing in year one of a Lib­eral gov­ern­ment after con­sult­ing with our stake­hold­ers on the most effi­cient and effec­tive way to imple­ment it. New annual fund­ing will help to cre­ate a domes­tic tours pro­gram as well.

Our plan is under­pinned by the belief that all Cana­di­ans have a vested inter­est in ensur­ing that our home­grown arts and cul­tural indus­tries thrive, and that the fed­eral gov­ern­ment has an impor­tant role to play in ensur­ing that Cana­di­ans for gen­er­a­tions to come have the oppor­tu­nity to enjoy the breadth and rich­ness of Canada’s artis­tic and cul­tural offerings.

Addi­tion­ally, the Bloc Québé­cois would like to cre­ate a spe­cific fund for cre­ators work­ing in new media production.

The Lib­eral Party rec­og­nizes that the cul­tural sec­tor is a major part of the Cana­dian econ­omy. Accord­ing to a Con­fer­ence Board study, cul­ture gen­er­ates more than $80 bil­lion in direct and indi­rect eco­nomic ben­e­fits every year, and cre­ates 1.1 mil­lion jobs. The Lib­eral Party also rec­og­nizes that the Canada Coun­cil for the Arts is a major force in sup­port­ing work­ing artists.

A Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will increase invest­ments in the arts sec­tor by dou­bling the annual bud­get of the Canada Coun­cil for the Arts, from $180 mil­lion to $360 mil­lion over the next four years. A Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will also restore the Pro­mart and TradeR­outes cul­tural pro­mo­tion pro­grams and increase their fund­ing to $25 mil­lion annu­ally, start­ing in year one of a Lib­eral gov­ern­ment after con­sult­ing with our stake­hold­ers on the most effi­cient and effec­tive way to imple­ment it. New annual fund­ing will help to cre­ate a domes­tic tours pro­gram as well.

Jack Lay­ton and the New Demo­c­rat team believe Canada’s thriv­ing arts com­mu­nity should be able to rely on sta­ble, long-term core fund­ing from the fed­eral gov­ern­ment. Our com­mit­ment to fund the Coun­cil will place the orga­ni­za­tion on firm foot­ing and enable it to main­tain and expand its activ­i­ties, which we believe are essen­tial to Canada’s cul­tural heritage.

provinces, ter­ri­to­ries and munic­i­pal­i­ties to make it more con­sis­tent with the provinces and munic­i­pal­i­ties that have the high­est cur­rent standards.

The Green Party will increase fund­ing incen­tives for artists and art events to tour Canada’s rural regions and we will restore the government-provided transport

ser­vice to allow the trans­port of exhi­bi­tions between muse­ums and galleries.

The Lib­eral Party rec­og­nizes that the cul­tural sec­tor is a major part of the Cana­dian econ­omy. Accord­ing to a Con­fer­ence Board study, cul­ture gen­er­ates more than $80 bil­lion in direct and indi­rect eco­nomic ben­e­fits every year, and cre­ates 1.1 mil­lion jobs. The Lib­eral Party also rec­og­nizes that the Canada Coun­cil for the Arts is a major force in sup­port­ing work­ing artists.

A Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will increase invest­ments in the arts sec­tor by dou­bling the annual bud­get of the Canada Coun­cil for the Arts, from $180 mil­lion to $360 mil­lion over the next four years. A Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will also restore the Pro­mart and TradeR­outes cul­tural pro­mo­tion pro­grams and increase their fund­ing to $25 mil­lion annu­ally, start­ing in year one of a Lib­eral gov­ern­ment after con­sult­ing with our stake­hold­ers on the most effi­cient and effec­tive way to imple­ment it. New annual fund­ing will help to cre­ate a domes­tic tours pro­gram as well.

• Pro­vid­ing sta­ble sup­port to Canada’s per­form­ing arts, cul­tural insti­tu­tions, and cre­ators through increases in fund­ing to the Canada Coun­cil for the Arts (and the indi­vid­u­als and groups who rely on the Coun­cil). The New Demo­c­rat plan explores ways to address the great finan­cial dis­par­i­ties expe­ri­enced by cre­ators and arts orga­ni­za­tions in dif­fer­ent munic­i­pal­i­ties, provinces and ter­ri­to­ries by focus­ing on sta­ble funding;
• Refo­cus­ing the man­date of the CRTC to pro­mote and pro­tect Cana­dian cul­tural indus­tries; we will also ensure it bet­ter reflects Quebec’s cul­tural and lin­guis­tic real­ity and that of Canada’s fran­coph­one communities;
• Pro­mot­ing the pro­duc­tion and broad­cast of Cana­dian con­tent on Cana­dian tele­vi­sion and in Cana­dian theatres;
• Strength­en­ing pub­lic broad­cast­ing with long-term sta­ble fund­ing for CBC, Radio– Canada and other pub­lic broad­cast­ers, includ­ing the capac­ity to deliver supe­rior regional pro­duc­tion and inter­net services;
• Pro­vid­ing sus­tained fund­ing for the Canada Media Fund and Tele­film Canada, enhanc­ing fed­eral film incen­tives and devel­op­ing a tar­geted strat­egy for the pro­mo­tion of domes­tic films in Canada;
• Set­ting license require­ments for broad­cast­ers based on clear, bind­ing and enforced per­for­mance stan­dards, includ­ing increased Cana­dian drama.
• Devel­op­ing a dig­i­tal online cul­ture ser­vice to broaden access to Cana­dian content.

The Lib­eral party believes that Cana­di­ans should con­tinue to have access to ever more Cana­dian sto­ries and Cana­dian con­tent in the Dig­i­tal Canada of the future. New media should pro­vide vibrant and reward­ing new avenues for expres­sion by Cana­dian artists. The pub­lic broad­cast­ers, Radio Canada and the CBC have cru­cial roles to play in achiev­ing these objec­tives. A Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will pro­vide the CBC and Radio-Canada with sta­ble and pre­dictable fund­ing in sup­port of their unique and cru­cial roles as essen­tial pro­mot­ers and defend­ers of Cana­di­ans cul­ture in a dig­i­tal Canada.

The Bloc Québé­cois believes that fund­ing for inter­na­tional arts tour­ing needs to be rein­stated imme­di­ately.

imme­di­ately restore them. We will reverse the Con­ser­v­a­tive government’s deci­sion to elim­i­nate the GST rebate for for­eign visitors.

We also intend to cre­ate a new fed­eral Depart­ment of Tourism, sep­a­rate from Her­itage Canada, to coor­di­nate all aspects of tourism. The ini­tial focus will be on improv­ing and strength­en­ing Canada’s “brand” as a global cul­tural tourist des­ti­na­tion and on pro­mot­ing Cana­dian arts and cul­tural prod­ucts abroad.

The Pro­mart and Trade Routes cul­tural pro­mo­tion pro­grams play an impor­tant role in bring­ing Cana­dian cul­ture to the world and increas­ing our exports. As dis­cussed above, a Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will restore the Pro­mart and TradeR­outes cul­tural pro­mo­tion pro­grams and increase their fund­ing to $25 mil­lion annu­ally, start­ing in year one of a Lib­eral government.

A Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will also imple­ment Canada’s first Global Net­works Strat­egy. This strat­egy rec­og­nizes the con­tri­bu­tion that Cana­dian cul­tural lead­ers make to Canada’s pres­ence in the world. Under this strat­egy, Global Net­work Agree­ments will go far beyond exports and imports. The new agree­ments would man­date greatly enhanced people-to-people coop­er­a­tion, exchanges, and col­lab­o­ra­tive projects in key sec­tors such as cul­ture. Instead of an ad hoc and piece­meal approach, we would set coher­ent objec­tives across the whole rela­tion­ship, and estab­lish spe­cific man­dates from the high­est lev­els for action. Suc­cess will mean going well beyond government-to-government con­tacts and lever­ag­ing rela­tion­ships at all lev­els, includ­ing in the pri­vate sec­tor, acad­e­mia, arts and cul­ture and civil society.

As part of the Global Net­works Strat­egy, a Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will also launch a new Brand­ing Canada ini­tia­tive in key mar­kets around the world, work­ing in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the pri­vate sec­tor, lead­ing artists and acad­e­mia. Cana­dian cul­ture will be a major focus of the new Brand­ing Canada ini­tia­tive. Cana­dian cre­ators work­ing in French, Eng­lish and other lan­guages, con­tribute to Cana­dian pros­per­ity and iden­tity, while deep­en­ing our con­nec­tions in a net­worked world.

To meet this objec­tive, we will restore and strengthen culture’s tra­di­tional, right­ful place as the “Third Pil­lar” in Canada’s for­eign pol­icy strat­egy, while the right of every coun­try to sov­er­eign own­er­ship and con­trol over its cul­ture will be the core prin­ci­ple in all related diplo­matic dis­courses and trade negotiations.

The Pro­mart and Trade Routes cul­tural pro­mo­tion pro­grams play an impor­tant role in bring­ing Cana­dian cul­ture to the world and increas­ing our exports. As dis­cussed above, a Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will restore the Pro­mart and TradeR­outes cul­tural pro­mo­tion pro­grams and increase their fund­ing to $25 mil­lion annu­ally, start­ing in year one of a Lib­eral government.

A Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will also imple­ment Canada’s first Global Net­works Strat­egy. This strat­egy rec­og­nizes the con­tri­bu­tion that Cana­dian cul­tural lead­ers make to Canada’s pres­ence in the world. Under this strat­egy, Global Net­work Agree­ments will go far beyond exports and imports. The new agree­ments would man­date greatly enhanced people-to-people coop­er­a­tion, exchanges, and col­lab­o­ra­tive projects in key sec­tors such as cul­ture. Instead of an ad hoc and piece­meal approach, we would set coher­ent objec­tives across the whole rela­tion­ship, and estab­lish spe­cific man­dates from the high­est lev­els for action. Suc­cess will mean going well beyond government-to-government con­tacts and lever­ag­ing rela­tion­ships at all lev­els, includ­ing in the pri­vate sec­tor, acad­e­mia, arts and cul­ture and civil society.

As part of the Global Net­works Strat­egy, a Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will also launch a new Brand­ing Canada ini­tia­tive in key mar­kets around the world, work­ing in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the pri­vate sec­tor, lead­ing artists and acad­e­mia. Cana­dian cul­ture will be a major focus of the new Brand­ing Canada ini­tia­tive. Cana­dian cre­ators work­ing in French, Eng­lish and other lan­guages, con­tribute to Cana­dian pros­per­ity and iden­tity, while deep­en­ing our con­nec­tions in a net­worked world.

Trade Routes and Pro­mArt were instru­men­tal in assist­ing Cana­di­ans in sell­ing their work to indi­vid­ual buy­ers and mar­kets across the globe, in the process help­ing to cement Canada’s rep­u­ta­tion abroad as a cul­tur­ally vibrant and inno­v­a­tive coun­try. They pro­vided oppor­tu­ni­ties to tour abroad, as well as ser­vices that included mar­ket research, assis­tance in final­iz­ing export plans and helped arts and cul­tural entre­pre­neurs to bring their prod­ucts to market.

New Democ­rats believe that promis­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties exist for Cana­dian art that has not received expo­sure on the inter­na­tional scene in the past, and we would actively seek to engage Abo­rig­i­nal artists, dias­pora com­mu­ni­ties and net­works of cul­tur­ally diverse artists to help them develop new mar­kets for their work.

Canada’s cul­ture and com­mu­ni­ca­tions indus­tries will be firmly pro­tected. Until such time as this hap­pens, Green MPs will fol­low all nego­ti­a­tions closely and will oppose pres­sures by our trad­ing part­ners to open exist­ing pro­tec­tions under GATT/ GATS at the WTO or to intro­duce Chap­ter 11– type pro­vi­sions in  CETA or any other agreement.

The Pro­mart and Trade Routes cul­tural pro­mo­tion pro­grams play an impor­tant role in bring­ing Cana­dian cul­ture to the world and increas­ing our exports. As dis­cussed above, a Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will restore the Pro­mart and TradeR­outes cul­tural pro­mo­tion pro­grams and increase their fund­ing to $25 mil­lion annu­ally, start­ing in year one of a Lib­eral government.

A Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will also imple­ment Canada’s first Global Net­works Strat­egy. This strat­egy rec­og­nizes the con­tri­bu­tion that Cana­dian cul­tural lead­ers make to Canada’s pres­ence in the world. Under this strat­egy, Global Net­work Agree­ments will go far beyond exports and imports. The new agree­ments would man­date greatly enhanced people-to-people coop­er­a­tion, exchanges, and col­lab­o­ra­tive projects in key sec­tors such as cul­ture. Instead of an ad hoc and piece­meal approach, we would set coher­ent objec­tives across the whole rela­tion­ship, and estab­lish spe­cific man­dates from the high­est lev­els for action. Suc­cess will mean going well beyond government-to-government con­tacts and lever­ag­ing rela­tion­ships at all lev­els, includ­ing in the pri­vate sec­tor, acad­e­mia, arts and cul­ture and civil society.

As part of the Global Net­works Strat­egy, a Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will also launch a new Brand­ing Canada ini­tia­tive in key mar­kets around the world, work­ing in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the pri­vate sec­tor, lead­ing artists and acad­e­mia. Cana­dian cul­ture will be a major focus of the new Brand­ing Canada ini­tia­tive. Cana­dian cre­ators work­ing in French, Eng­lish and other lan­guages, con­tribute to Cana­dian pros­per­ity and iden­tity, while deep­en­ing our con­nec­tions in a net­worked world.

want more Cana­di­ans enter­ing these fields and we want all artists to have their fair share of the eco­nomic ben­e­fits Canada receives as a direct result of their labour.

The Green Party utterly rejects the cur­rent real­ity in which so many of our artists – many of them highly edu­cated — are forced to live in severe poverty. A Green Gov­ern­ment intends to elim­i­nate this worst kind of poverty through a Guar­an­teed Liv­able Income (GLI) for all Cana­di­ans. No means test­ing, no mon­i­tor­ing, no follow-up. No artists liv­ing in poverty.

With this social safety net in place, we will fol­low and imple­ment rec­om­men­da­tions of the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts in order to enable artists to access var­i­ous social pro­grams includ­ing Employ­ment Insur­ance, Work­ers’ Com­pen­sa­tion and the Canada Pen­sion Plan. We will imple­ment reforms to the Canada Rev­enue Act to reflect the spirit and sub­stance of the Copyright-Income Deduc­tion for cre­ators, increase fund­ing incen­tives for artists and art events to tour Canada’s rural regions, estab­lish the equiv­a­lent of the Japan­ese National Trea­sure Pro­gram where out­stand­ing indi­vid­ual artists are sup­ported to per­fect their crafts, and remove the GST on arts and culture

prod­ucts and ser­vices (while shift­ing the bur­den to unwanted activ­i­ties like  burn­ing fos­sil fuels.)

The Lib­eral party believes mea­sures such as the resale right should exist in Canada as it allows cre­ators to fairly ben­e­fit from their works when they gain value. A lib­eral gov­ern­ment is will­ing to explore other inno­v­a­tive mea­sures to ensure artists can make a bet­ter liv­ing from their works.

The Lib­eral party will help self-employed cre­ators access a solid pen­sion plan that avoids the risk, com­plex­ity and hid­den man­age­ment fees that too often drain retire­ment sav­ings from plans that are admin­is­tered by the pri­vate finan­cial sec­tor. A Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will pro­pose a new, vol­un­tary sup­ple­ment to the CPP called the

Secure Retire­ment Option

(SRO). By lever­ag­ing the CPP, self-employed work­ers will have access to a large, risk-pooled fund with very low admin­is­tra­tive fees. The SRO will be avail­able to any Cana­dian worker who wants it, with max­i­mum flex­i­bil­ity built in. This option will be fully portable, allow­ing work­ers to con­tinue with this plan as their employ­ment cir­cum­stances change.

The Lib­eral party will help self-employed cre­ators care for elderly or seri­ously ill loved ones at home. A Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will intro­duce a new

Fam­ily Care Tax Benefit

to help lower and middle-income fam­ily care­givers, regard­less of employ­ment cir­cum­stances. This new ben­e­fit will work just like the Canada Child Tax Ben­e­fit, and will be avail­able to all fam­ily care­givers with fam­ily incomes under $106,000 who pro­duce a med­ical cer­tifi­cate affirm­ing that their ill fam­ily mem­ber requires a sig­nif­i­cant amount of per­sonal care and assis­tance with daily tasks. Fam­i­lies with sick chil­dren who meet the cri­te­ria will also qual­ify. The new Fam­ily Care Tax Ben­e­fit will help an esti­mated 600,000 fam­ily care­givers each year at an annual cost of $750 million.

A Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will also help self-employed cre­ators access afford­able early child­hood learn­ing and child care pro­grams by estab­lish­ing a new

Early Child­hood Learn­ing and Care Fund

that will sup­port the cre­ation and oper­a­tion of new, afford­able, high-quality early child­hood learn­ing and care spaces across Canada, with well-trained pro­fes­sional staff. This fund will begin with $500 mil­lion in the first year, ris­ing to an annual com­mit­ment of $1 bil­lion by the fourth year.

Our party has long been com­mit­ted to improv­ing EI, and pro­vid­ing eco­nomic relief for Cana­di­ans, with spe­cific mea­sures tar­geted to small busi­nesses and the self-employed, includ­ing reduc­ing the small busi­ness tax rate from 11 per­cent to 9 per­cent – an ini­tia­tive we believe will offer con­crete sup­port to a sec­tor of our econ­omy that cre­ates nearly half of all new jobs in Canada – offer­ing a Job Tax Credit that will pro­vide up to $4,500 per new hire (includ­ing a $1,000 non-refundable tax credit for worker reten­tion), and offer­ing tax aver­ag­ing for artists and work­ers in cul­tural industries.

• increas­ing the tax credit for all new dona­tions to a char­ity, if the annual dona­tion is between $200 and $10,000;
• elim­i­nate the tax on cap­i­tal gains with respect to dona­tions of real property

The Green Party is also com­mit­ted to increas­ing tax breaks for Cana­di­ans who donate to reg­is­tered char­i­ties, thus mak­ing it eas­ier for cul­tural orga­ni­za­tions that  are depen­dent on dona­tions to thrive and prosper.

Recent stud­ies have shown that Canada’s out-of-date Copy­right act trans­lates into major eco­nomic loss (up to 965 mil­lion dol­lars lost last year due to piracy, accord­ing to an Ipsos/ Oxford eco­nom­ics study) for Cana­dian cre­ators all across the coun­try; the Lib­eral Party will thus start work­ing on pre­sent­ing a mod­ernised copy­right act as soon as we form gov­ern­ment. Bill C-32, the lat­est Con­ser­v­a­tive attempt to mod­ernise copy­right, was unbal­anced and unfair; a Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will work with all stake­hold­ers to ensure cre­ators rights and their sources of rev­enues are pro­tected under the Copy­right act.

Dig­i­tal tech­nol­ogy offers many new oppor­tu­ni­ties, but enjoy­ing con­tent with­out com­pen­sat­ing its cre­ators shouldn’t be among them. A new Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will intro­duce tech­nol­ogy neu­tral copy­right leg­is­la­tion that bal­ances the needs of cre­ators and con­sumers and reflects the prin­ci­ple that our artists and musi­cians should be paid for their work. We will stand with Cana­dian cre­ators as they nav­i­gate both the oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges of the new dig­i­tal society.

Dur­ing the debate on copy­right leg­is­la­tion in the last Par­lia­ment, it was the Lib­eral Party that devel­oped a prac­ti­cal solu­tion to pro­vid­ing musi­cians with com­pen­sa­tion through a new pri­vate copy­ing com­pen­sa­tion fund rather than a levy. A Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will look to develop sim­i­larly inno­v­a­tive solu­tions to ensure that the Copy­right Act pro­tects cre­ators’ exist­ing and future rights and rev­enue streams in a dig­i­tal age. Like­wise, the Lib­eral party believes that any excep­tion under fair deal­ings must be clearly defined with a clear and strict test for fair use so that cre­ators are fairly com­pen­sated for their work.

Ille­gal down­load­ing is detri­men­tal to artists, who receive no fair com­pen­sa­tion for their works, while inter­net ser­vice providers are able to ben­e­fit finan­cially from their labour.

Intro­duced in June 2010 by the Con­ser­v­a­tives, Bill C-32 fails to make ISPs respon­si­ble and is sat­is­fied with attack­ing the con­sumers who pay ISPs for inter­net access.

Recent stud­ies have shown that Canada’s out-of-date Copy­right act trans­lates into major eco­nomic loss (up to 965 mil­lion dol­lars lost last year due to piracy, accord­ing to an Ipsos/ Oxford eco­nom­ics study) for Cana­dian cre­ators all across the coun­try; the Lib­eral Party will thus start work­ing on pre­sent­ing a mod­ernised copy­right act as soon as we form gov­ern­ment. Bill C-32, the lat­est Con­ser­v­a­tive attempt to mod­ernise copy­right, was unbal­anced and unfair; a Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will work with all stake­hold­ers to ensure cre­ators rights and their sources of rev­enues are pro­tected under the Copy­right act.

Dig­i­tal tech­nol­ogy offers many new oppor­tu­ni­ties, but enjoy­ing con­tent with­out com­pen­sat­ing its cre­ators shouldn’t be among them. A new Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will intro­duce tech­nol­ogy neu­tral copy­right leg­is­la­tion that bal­ances the needs of cre­ators and con­sumers and reflects the prin­ci­ple that our artists and musi­cians should be paid for their work. We will stand with Cana­dian cre­ators as they nav­i­gate both the oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges of the new dig­i­tal society.

Dur­ing the debate on copy­right leg­is­la­tion in the last Par­lia­ment, it was the Lib­eral Party that devel­oped a prac­ti­cal solu­tion to pro­vid­ing musi­cians with com­pen­sa­tion through a new pri­vate copy­ing com­pen­sa­tion fund rather than a levy. A Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will look to develop sim­i­larly inno­v­a­tive solu­tions to ensure that the Copy­right Act pro­tects cre­ators’ exist­ing and future rights and rev­enue streams in a dig­i­tal age. Like­wise, the Lib­eral party believes that any excep­tion under fair deal­ings must be clearly defined with a clear and strict test for fair use so that cre­ators are fairly com­pen­sated for their work.

Recent stud­ies have shown that Canada’s out-of-date Copy­right act trans­lates into major eco­nomic loss (up to 965 mil­lion dol­lars lost last year due to piracy, accord­ing to an Ipsos/ Oxford eco­nom­ics study) for Cana­dian cre­ators all across the coun­try; the Lib­eral Party will thus start work­ing on pre­sent­ing a mod­ernised copy­right act as soon as we form gov­ern­ment. Bill C-32, the lat­est Con­ser­v­a­tive attempt to mod­ernise copy­right, was unbal­anced and unfair; a Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will work with all stake­hold­ers to ensure cre­ators rights and their sources of rev­enues are pro­tected under the Copy­right act.

Dig­i­tal tech­nol­ogy offers many new oppor­tu­ni­ties, but enjoy­ing con­tent with­out com­pen­sat­ing its cre­ators shouldn’t be among them. A new Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will intro­duce tech­nol­ogy neu­tral copy­right leg­is­la­tion that bal­ances the needs of cre­ators and con­sumers and reflects the prin­ci­ple that our artists and musi­cians should be paid for their work. We will stand with Cana­dian cre­ators as they nav­i­gate both the oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges of the new dig­i­tal society.

Dur­ing the debate on copy­right leg­is­la­tion in the last Par­lia­ment, it was the Lib­eral Party that devel­oped a prac­ti­cal solu­tion to pro­vid­ing musi­cians with com­pen­sa­tion through a new pri­vate copy­ing com­pen­sa­tion fund rather than a levy. A Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will look to develop sim­i­larly inno­v­a­tive solu­tions to ensure that the Copy­right Act pro­tects cre­ators’ exist­ing and future rights and rev­enue streams in a dig­i­tal age. Like­wise, the Lib­eral party believes that any excep­tion under fair deal­ings must be clearly defined with a clear and strict test for fair use so that cre­ators are fairly com­pen­sated for their work.

With care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion of inno­v­a­tive mech­a­nisms to mod­ern­ize col­lec­tive licens­ing – whether through the exist­ing Copy­right Board, leg­is­la­tion, or other instru­ment – we believe that it can strike a bal­ance between fair access and remu­ner­a­tion in the future.

The Bloc Québé­cois is com­mit­ted to fos­ter­ing a regime requir­ing ISPs to pay roy­al­ties, which will go towards a fund to pay cre­ators in Que­bec who have been harmed due to the ille­gal down­load­ing of artis­tic works.

it will not allow stu­dents and jour­nal­ists to prop­erly cre­ate and con­duct research.

We will work with the CCA and other stake­hold­ers to sharpen the def­i­n­i­tion of “edu­ca­tional uses” to find the right bal­ance to give researchers this abil­ity in a man­ner con­sis­tent with a thriv­ing infor­ma­tion com­mons, fair deal­ing prin­ci­ples, and moral rights.

Recent stud­ies have shown that Canada’s out-of-date Copy­right act trans­lates into major eco­nomic loss (up to 965 mil­lion dol­lars lost last year due to piracy, accord­ing to an Ipsos/ Oxford eco­nom­ics study) for Cana­dian cre­ators all across the coun­try; the Lib­eral Party will thus start work­ing on pre­sent­ing a mod­ernised copy­right act as soon as we form gov­ern­ment. Bill C-32, the lat­est Con­ser­v­a­tive attempt to mod­ernise copy­right, was unbal­anced and unfair; a Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will work with all stake­hold­ers to ensure cre­ators rights and their sources of rev­enues are pro­tected under the Copy­right act.

Dig­i­tal tech­nol­ogy offers many new oppor­tu­ni­ties, but enjoy­ing con­tent with­out com­pen­sat­ing its cre­ators shouldn’t be among them. A new Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will intro­duce tech­nol­ogy neu­tral copy­right leg­is­la­tion that bal­ances the needs of cre­ators and con­sumers and reflects the prin­ci­ple that our artists and musi­cians should be paid for their work. We will stand with Cana­dian cre­ators as they nav­i­gate both the oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges of the new dig­i­tal society.

Dur­ing the debate on copy­right leg­is­la­tion in the last Par­lia­ment, it was the Lib­eral Party that devel­oped a prac­ti­cal solu­tion to pro­vid­ing musi­cians with com­pen­sa­tion through a new pri­vate copy­ing com­pen­sa­tion fund rather than a levy. A Lib­eral gov­ern­ment will look to develop sim­i­larly inno­v­a­tive solu­tions to ensure that the Copy­right Act pro­tects cre­ators’ exist­ing and future rights and rev­enue streams in a dig­i­tal age. Like­wise, the Lib­eral party believes that any excep­tion under fair deal­ings must be clearly defined with a clear and strict test for fair use so that cre­ators are fairly com­pen­sated for their work.

In order to arrive at an equi­lib­rium between the inter­ests of rights-holders and those of con­sumers, New Democ­rats would likely begin devel­op­ing new copy­right laws, begin­ning by con­sult­ing widely with stake­holder groups with the aim of cre­at­ing a leg­is­la­tion that is – unlike C-32 – truly technology-neutral, bal­anced and flex­i­ble enough to ensure its adapt­abil­ity to new plat­forms and tech­nolo­gies in the years to come. We would also deter­mine defin­i­tively Canada’s oblig­a­tions as a sig­na­tory to var­i­ous inter­na­tional treaties gov­ern­ing copy­right and intel­lec­tual property.

leg­is­la­tion that restricts for­eign own­er­ship so that Cana­di­ans remain in con­trol of their cul­tural des­tiny. This includes pro­posed updates to exist­ing CRTC rules that might fur­ther expose Canada’s arts and cul­ture indus­tries and  infra­struc­tures to for­eign own­er­ship and control.

A Green Gov­ern­ment will strengthen Cana­dian con­tent rules by enact­ing leg­is­la­tion that requires cin­e­mas and video chains to have at least 20% Cana­dian con­tent, and we will pro­mote and pro­tect cul­tural diver­sity within Canada by ensur­ing that the CRTC reserves more band­width for inde­pen­dent and non-profit

sta­tions.

We will guar­an­tee sta­ble base fund­ing for the CBC, start­ing with invest­ments of $100 mil­lion in 2011–2012, $150 mil­lion in 2012–2013, and $$200 mil­lion in 2013–2014.

muse­ums and share more of Canada’s museum hold­ings and exper­tise with the world.

As part of our new Munic­i­pal Super­fund Pro­gram, we will increase fund­ing sup­port for sports, cul­tural (muse­ums) and recre­ational facil­i­ties all across Canada through base-funding at a set per­cent­age of the fed­eral bud­get. Ini­tial com­mit­ments over the next three years are $300M for 2011-12, $300M in 2012– 13 and $300M in 2013–14.

Other actions include increas­ing tax breaks to indi­vid­u­als who donate to museum foun­da­tions and other char­i­ties, remov­ing the GST from all arts and cul­ture prod­ucts and ser­vices for Cana­di­ans and for­eign­ers, and intro­duc­ing a new national pro­gram of energy retro­fits to pub­lic sec­tor build­ings such as museums.