The cultural community is divided on the 2023-2024 budget of Quebec, which provides $ 561 million over five years for culture. While organizations particularly welcome efforts to encourage young people to take an interest in Quebec culture, many are concerned about the lack of support for its production and dissemination.
“That’s the basic principle. If we want our culture to continue to flourish, with the globalization of markets becoming more and more important, it is a very good initiative to invest to interest young people”, underlines Annick Charette, president of the National Federation of communications and culture (FNCC), affiliated with the CSN.
Of the total budget of 561 million, the Legault government has decided to grant 101 million to Télé-Québec over the next five years. The channel will thus be able to “reaffirm its role in youth programming and improve its services on the various platforms,” said Finance Minister Eric Girard, unveiling his budget on Tuesday.
The FNCC-CSN had been pressing the government for years to increase the budget granted to Télé-Québec, which had not changed for 25 years. “In a world in perpetual change and in great competition like television, it was a necessity for a long time”, affirms Mme Cart.
The President and CEO of Télé-Québec, Marie Collin, was obviously delighted with the announcement, seeing in it “a tremendous gesture of confidence in Télé-Québec and in all of [ses] teams”. The channel wants to retain young people, whom it tends to “lose” between the ages of 9 and 14 due to the multitude of content available to them. For this, the priority will be to reach them where they consume the most culture: on digital platforms.
This investment in the channel was also welcomed by the Association of Directors and Directors of Quebec, the Guild of Musicians of Quebec, the Society of Radio, Television and Cinema Authors and the Union of Artists. “We are of the opinion that Télé-Québec should be the main broadcaster of Quebec culture and act as a vector for French-language artistic products,” they commented with one voice in a press release.
They also applauded the government’s desire to train more students at the Quebec Conservatory of Music and Drama. Eric Girard’s budget provides $16.8 million for this over five years.
More digital
And since younger generations spend a lot of time in the digital world, the government will invest more in it. Accordingly, $95 million will be devoted to it, among other things, to ensure an online presence for local content, promote Québec culture abroad and support companies that contribute to this sector.
Quebec will also create a digital cultural passport for young people to encourage their consumption of Quebec cultural products at lower cost. An envelope of 4.2 million over two years will be devoted to the project.
The book industry also benefits from the new budget, with 5.5 million allocated to it over five years. The approximately 90 publishing houses in Quebec will receive a tax credit of 35% (an increase of 7%) for printing costs. They will be able to deduct 65% (instead of 50% previously) of their labor expenses for preparatory and digital publishing costs.
“Current printing and labor issues made it essential to adjust this tax measure,” says Jean-François Bouchard, president of the National Association of Book Publishers. He sees a gain for creators, but also for publishing houses, which can be more competitive here and abroad.
The media will be able to count on aid of 13.3 million over five years.
And for creation, production, distribution?
In addition, Quebec provides 51 million to promote culture, elsewhere than on digital, with in particular support for the distribution of shows and the middle of the book. No less than 200 million will also be made available to SODEC to promote Quebec culture.
The government, however, gives few details on how these amounts will be used and distributed in the community. This situation leaves many cultural organizations in the dark as to the real support they will obtain.
“The government seems to be in transition rather than in recovery. Our community is still in great need of predictability and we are eager to know the precise intentions with regard to the credits devoted to the performing arts sector, ”argues with concern David Laferrière, president of RIDEAU, which brings together 350 performance halls.
The Quebec Theater Council agrees. Co-presidents Rachel Morse and Laurence Régnier point out that the environment is still very fragile due to the shortage of staff, retention problems related to salaries and working conditions, not to mention inflation.
“It lacks vision,” says Annick Charette of the FNCC-CSN. Museums, performing arts and other sectors still need help. They have not all regained their pre-pandemic attendance. »
For its part, the Quebec Media Production Association says it is very disappointed to see that its main request has not been accepted, namely “to adjust the refundable tax credit for Quebec film and television production”.
Note that the budget makes no mention of the controversial Blue Spaces project, very dear to the Legault government. In interview with The duty in early March, the Minister of Culture, Mathieu Lacombe, announced a slowdown in the establishment of the network due to cost overruns for the first announced Espaces Bleus.