Last week, the legendary Quebec concert hall Le Pantoum launched a cry from the heart. The organization needs $500,000 to complete important work, without which their broadcast spaces, recording studios and community spaces will not reopen. A collective of around twenty Quebec artists, including Coeur de Pirate, Émile Bilodeau, Lou-Adrianne Cassidy, Ariane Roy and Michel Rivard, among others, published in The duty an open letter to the Minister of Culture and Communications Mathieu Lacombe to request that funding of $250,000 be granted to the venue located at 76, rue Saint-Vallier Ouest in the St-Roch district.
This situation arises largely because Le Pantoum is not eligible for the Capital Assistance Program (PAI) from the Quebec Ministry of Culture and Communications. However, the latter is accessible to broadcasters “specialized or multidisciplinary in performing arts or multidisciplinary arts whose programming management is the responsibility of a broadcaster or producer supported by the CALQ (Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec). )”. This definition covers the Pantoum, with one exception: it is supported by SODEC (Society for the Development of Cultural Enterprises) and not the CALQ; its sister organism.
This criterion excludes venues serving the vast majority of Quebec musical artists, namely independent venues. 80% of professional musical shows taking place in Quebec take place in these so-called alternative venues, the vast majority of which come under the responsibility of SODEC and not CALQ. Although these two state corporations report to the Minister of Culture and Communications, the PAI ignores the venues serving the vast majority of Quebec musical artists.
The Pantoum situation is not unique. The SMAQ (Alternative Music Scenes of Quebec) represents around fifty venues which are collectively the cornerstone of the musical broadcasting and touring ecosystem in Quebec. These rooms have seen the birth of the biggest names and are also the cradle of tomorrow’s cultural offerings.
Around a third of our members would like to be able to access the PAI in order to carry out major work or acquire the building housing their place, to avoid being kicked out, to suffer significant unforeseen rent increases and to be able to manage the use of neighboring spaces in order to avoid neighborhood conflicts. This last point is particularly important for Montreal theaters, whose operations are constantly threatened due to the backward and anti-culture regulations that remain in force there, allowing a single disgruntled neighbor to obtain the closure of a venue, and this despite at least a decade of representation to our various municipal governments.
We add our voice behind the Pantoum and the 23 artists who signed the said letter, as well as the entire community surrounding this institution to request not only aid of $250,000 from the Ministry of Culture and Communications, but also so that a temporary intervention is put in place until the PAI is modified so that it represents the entire distribution ecosystem that supports the artists of our province.
This will ensure equitable access for independent theaters to public capital resources.
It is important to note that the inconsistency of the PAI eligibility criteria is not an isolated case of public funding. Independent venues (which, let us remember, present more than 80% of musical shows in Quebec) are systematically taken in a context of double standards. Last March, the CAQ’s 2024-2025 budget announced $28 million for the CALQ over 4 years, part of which will go to performing arts presenters. However, independent broadcasters, supported by SODEC and ineligible for CALQ, were absent.
Let’s be honest: the amount granted to the CALQ in the last budget is anemic and its customers deserve better. However, the total lack of consideration for the places that drive the majority of Quebec musical tours is even more aberrant. In a context of significant sectoral precariousness caused by several factors, we find first and foremost the actions and oversights of the provincial government over recent years.
We can no longer tolerate blind spots in our system of cultural governance. Let us normalize, please, Mr. Lacombe, access to public aid for all, with the first step of creating a gateway to capital assistance.