CCA Bul­letin 11/09

April 7, 2009

Just the Facts

Accord­ing to the lat­est data avail­able, Canada has gone from a small cul­tural trade deficit in 1997 to a mod­est sur­plus ten years later. Sta­tis­tics Canada has recently released data on Cana­dian cul­tural imports and exports for the period of 1997 – 2006. The data exam­ine imports and exports for Canada’s top twenty trad­ing partners.

The num­bers reveal a rel­a­tive suc­cess story for the arts and cul­ture sec­tor with exports dou­bling from $1.5 bil­lion in 1997 to $3 bil­lion in 2006. Inter­est­ingly enough, growth in imports of cul­tural goods and ser­vices for the same period went from $1.5 bil­lion in 1997 to $2.8 bil­lion in 2006. This more mod­est rate of growth could how­ever be largely due to the re-evaluation of the Cana­dian dol­lar over the period, which makes imports cheaper. That being said, taken together these fig­ures rep­re­sent a small cul­tural trade sur­plus for Canada in 2006.

By using this data as evi­dence, it is clear that the pro­mo­tion of Cana­dian cul­tural goods and ser­vices inter­na­tion­ally is a win­ner for the econ­omy and rep­re­sents an impor­tant source of rev­enue for arts and cul­tural enter­prises. This data also reflects Canada’s posi­tion as an ideal loca­tion for shoot­ing audio­vi­sual pro­duc­tions. Per­haps these data will help con­vince the fed­eral gov­ern­ment to design a new strat­egy to pro­mote the devel­op­ment of audi­ences and mar­kets abroad for Cana­dian cul­tural goods and services.

Exports to the United States and United King­dom lead the growth in Cana­dian exports within Canada’s top twenty trad­ing part­ners. Unfor­tu­nately, the data reveal that France, Ger­many, Italy, China and Switzer­land reduced their imports of Cana­dian cul­tural goods and ser­vices over the same period. The “rest of the world” con­tributed a growth of our cul­tural exports from $141.8 mil­lion to $625.7 million.

The sec­tors that con­tributed to the growth of Cana­dian exports include film pro­duc­tion and dis­tri­b­u­tion, pro­vi­sion of ser­vices to cul­tural enter­prises, and copy­right and roy­alty rev­enues. In the first cat­e­gory, the notion of “exports” cov­ers Amer­i­can movie pro­duc­tions done in Canada.

The sore spot con­cerns the broad­cast indus­try where, in con­trast, the export of broad­cast­ing mate­ri­als remained quite dis­mal dur­ing this period. At the same time, the import of broad­cast­ing mate­ri­als grew from $227 mil­lion in 1997 to $614 mil­lion in 2006.

More alarm­ingly, we now know from the CRTC that Canada’s pri­vate broad­cast­ers spent a record $775.2 mil­lion in 2007–2008 (up 7.4% from $721.9 mil­lion in 2006–2007) on for­eign pro­gram­ming, prin­ci­pally on U.S drama., and only $88.3 mil­lion on the pro­duc­tion of Cana­dian TV.

Tell Me More

The Sta­tis­tics Canada data nei­ther reflect the changes in fed­eral sup­port for the pro­mo­tion of Cana­dian artists, cre­ators and cul­tural enter­prises nor do the data include the pur­chase of more Amer­i­can con­tent by Cana­dian broad­cast­ers (includ­ing the CBC).  Inter­est­ingly enough, Cana­dian tele­vi­sion pro­duc­tions have been sell­ing well around the world in recent years with Flash­point, The Bor­der, The Lis­tener, Howie Do It,  Lit­tle Mosque on the Prairie, Cor­ner Gas and Degrassi as just a few examples.

In addi­tion, the con­tin­u­ing suc­cess of Cana­dian authors is not ade­quately reflected in the break-down of the type of ser­vices included in the data. This is due to the use of the inter­na­tional data clas­si­fi­ca­tion sys­tem which is intended to facil­i­tate inter­na­tional comparisons.

Nonethe­less, the sig­nif­i­cant growth in exports to the United States and the United King­dom is impres­sive indi­ca­tion that for­eign mar­kets are respon­sive to the qual­ity and range of Cana­dian cul­tural prod­ucts and services.

The data pro­vide a com­pelling argu­ment for the devel­op­ment of a new strat­egy for the pro­mo­tion of Cana­dian cul­tural goods and ser­vices on the world stage. Will Canada be the only mem­ber of the G-20 to sit out the bur­geon­ing world­wide mar­ket for con­tent in all of its for­mats? This is a ques­tion only our lead­ers will be able to answer. Let us be sure that they are asked the ques­tion at every turn until a new strat­egy emerges.

The data dis­cussed here will be avail­able on Sta­tis­tics Canada web­site in May 2009. Until then, please go here to request a copy of the data.

What Can I Do?

Write or email your Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment, the Min­is­ter of Cana­dian Her­itage, the Hon. James Moore and mem­bers of the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Cana­dian Her­itage and ask them when we can expect a revamped strat­egy for the inter­na­tional pro­mo­tion of Cana­dian artists, cre­ators and cul­tural goods and services.

The Pres­i­dent of the CCA has sent to the Min­is­ter of Cana­dian Her­itage a let­ter on this topic. Please send a copy of your let­ter to the CCA c/o Jessica.Litwin@ccarts.ca.