Culture and Trade

CCA Bul­letin 17/08

June 4 , 2008

 

On May 29, 2008, I attended my first Annual Gen­eral Meet­ing of the Trade Team Canada –Cul­tural Goods and Ser­vices. It was a most inter­est­ing meet­ing, attended by senior offi­cials from the Depart­ments of Cana­dian Her­itage and For­eign Affairs and Inter­na­tional Trade, and many orga­ni­za­tions from the arts and cul­ture sector.

Some inter­est­ing data were pro­vided on Canada’s cul­tural trade. In 2007, Sta­tis­tics Canada released a study on the eco­nomic con­tri­bu­tion of the cul­tural sec­tor in Canada. The study showed that in 2003 the sector:

 

• Con­tributed $ 43.2 bil­lion to the Cana­dian economy,
• Rep­re­sented 4% of national employment,
• Accounted for 3.8% of the Gross Domes­tic Product.

 

In 2005, cul­tural goods exports amounted to $ 2.37 bil­lion and for ser­vices, they totaled $ 2.90 bil­lion. The United States con­tin­ues to Canada’s largest trad­ing part­ner for both goods and ser­vices. Of Canada’s 2005 cul­tural exports, 90% of goods, and 73% of ser­vices went to the United States.

Dur­ing the dis­cus­sion, seri­ous con­cerns were raised over the future of cul­tural diplo­macy fund­ing from the Depart­ment of For­eign Affairs and Inter­na­tional Trade. I was able to under­line the sector’s pre­oc­cu­pa­tion with the future of this fund­ing as per­sist­ing rumours sug­gest that the rest of the pro­gram may be elim­i­nated alto­gether in the next round of bud­get review this fall.

Almost as a prepa­ra­tion for CCA’s June 12 debate on cul­tural diplo­macy and nation-branding, par­tic­i­pants raised ques­tions about the “Cana­dian brand” and debated which strat­egy was most effec­tive in pro­ject­ing Cana­dian cul­ture and val­ues on the world stage. If this meet­ing was any indi­ca­tion, the debate in Toronto is going to be lively and intense.

The other topic was a review of the Trade Routes pro­gram of the Depart­ment of Cana­dian Her­itage. As this pro­gram is com­ing up for renewal along­side all the oth­ers included in what was for­merly known as the Tomor­row Starts Today set of pro­grams, the Depart­ment has under­taken a client sat­is­fac­tion sur­vey on their expe­ri­ences with the pro­gram and obtained an 80% sat­is­fac­tion mark.

Trade Routes has become an impor­tant tool for both not-for-profit and indus­trial arts and cul­ture orga­ni­za­tions seek­ing to expand their pres­ence in inter­na­tional mar­kets. The future of the pro­gram is more crit­i­cal than ever given the con­tin­u­ing uncer­tainty about the pro­grams offered by the Depart­ment of For­eign Affairs and Inter­na­tional Trade. As I said, these con­cerns were evi­dent as par­tic­i­pants tried in vain to exact a clear indi­ca­tion of the Department’s inten­tions for the cul­tural diplo­macy program.

Trade routes has also funded Cul­tural Trade Com­mis­sion­ers to pro­vide ser­vices to clients with a focus on export pre­pared­ness and inter­na­tional mar­ket devel­op­ment and help with skills devel­op­ment and export coun­sel­ing. These Com­mis­sion­ers are housed in Van­cou­ver, Win­nipeg, Toronto, Mon­tréal, Monc­ton, Hal­i­fax and St. John’s. These Com­mis­sion­ers were highly rated on the qual­ity and time­li­ness of their services.

There is also an in-market assis­tance com­po­nent to Trade Routes that pro­vides ser­vices to arts and cul­tural exporters in Shang­hai, New York, Los Ange­les, Paris and Lon­don. A high per­cent­age of users of the in-market com­po­nent were sat­is­fied with qual­ity and time­li­ness of the service.

The sur­vey will pro­vide Depart­men­tal offi­cials clear ideas about the refine­ment of the pro­gram and its oper­a­tions as it goes for­ward for renewal. 93% of respon­dents indi­cated that they pre­ferred sup­port for inter­na­tional mar­ket devel­op­ment rather than export preparedness.

Respon­dents also indi­cated that the noti­fi­ca­tion of out­comes could be ear­lier and rec­om­mended the use of on-line appli­ca­tions and an approval-in-principle sys­tem to assist in expe­dit­ing their inter­na­tional mar­ket devel­op­ment strategies.

The CCA will con­tinue to explore other strate­gies to sup­port the pro­mo­tion of Cana­dian cul­ture and val­ues on the world stage. I encour­age you to ensure that your Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans under­stand the impor­tance of main­tain­ing pro­grams like Trade Routes and the pro­grams at the Depart­ment of For­eign Affairs and Inter­na­tional Trade. They are a vital part of the long-term sur­vival and pros­per­ity agenda for the cul­tural sector.

With the impres­sive finan­cial data released by Sta­tis­tics Canada, I can­not under­stand why any elected offi­cial would not only sup­port but bol­ster the resources ded­i­cated to the export of Cana­dian cul­tural goods and services.

Reminder

The CCA with the assis­tance of the Chalmers Fund and the Ontario Arts Coun­cil is stag­ing a debate on cul­tural diplo­macy and nation brand­ing on June 12, 2008 at the Ontario Col­lege of Art and Design. Ms Cyn­thia Schnei­der, for­mer US diplo­mat and cur­rently Dis­tin­guished Pro­fes­sor in the Prac­tice of Diplo­macy at George­town Uni­ver­sity, will share with par­tic­i­pants her con­sid­er­able expe­ri­ence in this field, while Melissa Aron­czyk, a Cana­dian doc­toral stu­dent at New York Uni­ver­sity, will explore the con­cept of nation brand­ing as alter­na­tive to cul­tural diplo­macy. It should be a stim­u­lat­ing dis­cus­sion. Please reg­is­ter now to ensure you have a seat. The reg­is­tra­tion fee for non CCA mem­bers has been waived but dona­tions are grate­fully accepted at the door.