The steering committee of the Culture, the Heart of Quebec Coalition is launching an appeal to political authorities regarding the future of Quebec’s cultural sector. The 2024 budget will be decisive in the survival of many key players in the artistic chain. Indeed, current economic challenges, juxtaposed with the COVID-19 pandemic, are helping to devastate a sector of activity that has already been weakened for several years.
We recall that the Coalition, which brings together several organizations representing more than 160,000 artists, artisans and cultural workers from all sectors of arts and culture in Quebec, asked during the 2022 provincial election campaign that the culture budget be increased to at least 2% of the Quebec budget. However, during the last budgetary exercise in spring 2023, measures related to supporting the workforce, the functioning of organizations as well as improving the living conditions of artists were absent.
Faced with precarious working conditions which continue to deteriorate, some artists and workers are abandoning the sector, and difficulties in retaining workers are becoming an increasingly glaring reality. The Coalition wishes to unite its voices in order to open the discussion to a question that now appears necessary: do we still want Quebec to distinguish itself culturally?
How is it possible to make our culture the vehicle of our identity, to bring it to life throughout the country and abroad without first supporting its beating heart? How can we make it shine and propel it if, at its very foundation, we are hesitant about its importance and the essential role it plays in the development of Quebec society? Of course, we must support the discoverability of our culture on major digital platforms and protect ourselves from the ravages of its invisibility among young people. But everything will not be decided there. Our culture is supported by creators and cultural workers who must first be properly supported by offering them decent practice and working conditions.
Currently, more than ever, our sector is going through a critical moment and the next budget could put our creators and cultural organizations at risk. Many people anticipate dizzying and recurring deficits, not to mention the artists and artisans who struggle to work with dignity. The latter face employment conditions so precarious that they suggest that their practice constitutes a sort of sub-profession, a second-rate professionalization.
In these times when inflation makes households insecure, where the pillars of our society such as health care, housing and education are undermined, culture is a powerful economic and identity vector which also takes contributes to the health and education of the population of Quebec. Recognition of the collective impact of artists and cultural workers cannot be ignored and must be part of a strong and forward-looking government vision.
Do we still want culture in Quebec? It also means asking ourselves what social project we want to put forward and what future we decide to build today. The 2024 budget will have to answer this question, because without a firm commitment from the government and despite all the efforts of artists, artisans and cultural workers who keep it alive with all the resistance of their passion, Quebec culture is more than never threatened.
* Also signed this letter: Christian Laforce, general manager of Copibec; Sonia Pelletier, general director of the Peer Group of Independent Arts for Research and Experimentation; Nadia Drouin, general director of En Piste, national circus arts group; Julien Silvestre, general director of the Quebec Crafts Council.