Toronto musician Deryck Roche, who is a drummer, teacher and active in a group called the Canadian Working Artists Coalition, says that artists are trying to figure out how to make money for the next two weeks and going into January, February and March while waiting for support from the Canada Performing Arts Workers Resilience Fund.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail
The beleaguered performing arts sector has been hit once again with COVID-19 restrictions as many provinces impose capacity limits in indoor venues such as theatres to battle a surge in cases from the Omicron variant.
The federal government announced Wednesday that it is temporarily expanding pandemic support programs for both employers and workers for a few weeks to address the loss of revenue because of these restrictions.
Last week, it also announced a new fund for performing arts workers as part of its fall economic update. But the program will not go into effect until the spring. The Canada Performing Arts Workers Resilience Fund will provide $60-million for the 2022-23 fiscal year.
The government, which confirmed that this new funding will become available on April 1, told The Globe and Mail that the transition program will be “tailor-made” for self-employed and independent workers in the sector.
In the meantime, some workers are scrambling. “I can tell you one thing: if it’s going to start in April, I have no idea how some people are going to survive until then,” said Ian Jutsun, a Toronto musician who co-founded the Canadian Working Artist Coalition during the pandemic.
While the government has released few details about the fund, it appears to be project-based.
“This temporary program will seek to fund new or improved industry-led and implemented initiatives to improve the economic, professional and personal circumstances of Canadian workers in the live performance sector,” a spokesperson for Canadian Heritage wrote in an e-mail to The Globe.
The statement from Heritage said it is “working with artist associations, guilds, unions and all related organizations to create this program as quickly as possible,” and would share more details in due time.
Ottawa has not said who will be eligible or how the money will be distributed, other than that $2.3-million will be provided to Canadian Heritage to administer the fund.
But since the economic update was delivered, Omicron has changed so much. For instance, Quebec has shut down live performance; Ontario has cut attendance at venues with 1,000 or more seats to 50-per-cent capacity; and on Tuesday, B.C. announced a 50-per-cent capacity cap on all seated indoor venues regardless of size, including theatres, movie theatres and concerts. Even some shows not directly ordered to shut down have closed or abandoned rehearsals for COVID-related reasons.
“Just when we thought we were seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, it turns out that the light is an oncoming train,” Arden R. Ryshpan, executive director of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association, said on Tuesday.
Many in the cultural sector are pointing out that Omicron restrictions are coming not long after the end of the Canada Recovery Benefit, which gig workers, including artists, had relied on as a source of income.
“Income support remains a gap,” said Frédéric Julien, director of research and development for the Canadian Association for the Performing Arts. CAPCOA welcomes the funding, saying it provides some hope to the sector.
But Mr. Julien says the impact of the pandemic on live performance has been so significant that no single support measure will be enough. “There are so many live-performance workers needing a CERB-like program, especially now.”
The Canada Emergency Recovery Benefit, which was replaced by the CRB, provided income support to workers who lost their jobs because of the pandemic. The CRB ended in October.
Canadian Actors’ Equity surveyed its membership in late November/early December and found that of those who responded, more than 80 per cent had accessed the CERB and/or the CRB during the pandemic. And 16 per cent said they could not meet their basic needs.
“One of the concerns we’ve had is people leaving the business as a result,” Ms. Ryshpan said.
Mr. Jutsun says some of the members of his coalition are relying on part-time jobs to get by, such as delivering for Skip the Dishes or picking up Christmas shifts at Home Depot. Others have gone back to school to retrain. “I just don’t see how we’re going to avoid a talent drain.”
Mr. Roche has written to Ontario Premier Doug Ford and federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, trying to get across what new COVID-19 restrictions mean for musicians like himself.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail
For people who work in theatre and live music, work is disappearing at the busiest time of year, when venues are mounting Christmas shows and New Year’s Eve concerts.
“We’re trying to figure out how to make money for the next two weeks and going into January, February, March,” said fellow CWAC member, Deryck Roche, a drummer and producer who has lost several gigs this holiday period.
“It’s been a lot of loss of work. It’s been hard, I’m not going to lie,” he said.
In the past few days, Mr. Roche has written to Ontario Premier Doug Ford and federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, trying to get across what these new restrictions mean for musicians like himself.
The Professional Alliance of Canadian Theatres says it is grateful for government support throughout the crisis and welcomes the new fund. But its executive director adds that there has been some frustration hearing the government refer to the industry’s recovery, as it did in its fiscal update.
“We’re nowhere near recovery,” Boomer Stacey said. His sector, he says, is still in survival mode.
“Recovery for us is a long way off. We’re not a light switch. We can’t hear on Friday that we’re open and Monday have something to welcome people in to see. It takes us months.”
With reports from Bill Curry.
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