Culture has never been so supported by Quebec as during the pandemic. A new survey by the Observatory of Culture and Communications of Quebec comes to quantify this exceptional funding, for this exceptional period. In 2020-2021, cultural spending by the Quebec public administration increased by 25%, to reach $2.4 billion.
This sum represents 1.85% of the consolidated expenditures of the government of Quebec — a peak, specifies the Observatory, since these data have been available, that is to say since 1985. This is one of the salient facts retained by the survey culture of Quebec public administration in 2020-2021”.
Sylvie Marceau, researcher at the Institut de la statistique du Québec, however, specifies in an interview with the Duty that the data collected is not detailed enough for us to be able to specifically calculate the pandemic aid for culture.
Can we deduce, when we see the solid growth of direct aid, that it is the support in times of COVID of which we see the traces? She nods. The survey “observes […] a 60% increase in external operating expenses in the form of financial assistance to individuals (grants, prizes, etc.), associations, organizations and businesses in the arts and culture sector, mainly in the form of grants, as well as municipal governments. »
In 2020-2021, half of total cultural spending went to Cinema and audiovisual (577 million), Multimedia (302 million or 13% of total spending) and Libraries (292 million or 12%).
The Cinema and audiovisual domain benefited from a quarter of total expenditure (25%) in 2020-2021. Its share was 21% in 2019-2020. This sector has been “one of the main beneficiaries of the additional direct and tax expenditures”, notes the Inquiry.
Expenditure declared for multidisciplinary activities also increased significantly (+105 million or +95.0%). “This result may be puzzling given that it includes festivals, most of which were canceled during the period [de la pandémie] “, we read. Pandemic relief measures contributed to this increase. But it is also there that we counted, for example, “performances in the performing arts that were to be presented in front of an audience have been reviewed in order to be able to be captured and broadcast on the Web. . »
“For the first time, the share of the three historically most important areas in direct expenditure (Libraries, Heritage, Museums and Archives, and Performing Arts) fell below 50%” in 2020-2021 and s is established at 48%”, we can still read. This decrease is attributable to a reduction in expenditure on Heritage, museum institutions and archives.
Conversely, the fields that had the smallest shares are Sound recording (12 million or 0.5%), Architecture and design (19 million or 0.8%), Arts education (33 million or 1%) – “but it is because the expenses there were much higher in 2019-2020 than in the past”, explains Mme Sylvie Marceau – and Visual Arts, Crafts and Media Arts (43.5 million or 1.9%).
Mme Marceau also notes that the increase in expenses is perceptible in almost all regions of Quebec. Direct expenditure thus increased in 15 of the 17 administrative regions.
Also, Quebec has allocated nearly $400 per capita for culture in the Quebec and Montreal regions in 2020-2021. In the other regions, this expenditure fluctuates between $44.62 (Laval) and $172.28 (Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine) per capita. It fell in Côte-Nord (-3.5% or $107 per capita) and in Nord-du-Québec (-6.6% or $49 per capita).