The Minister of Culture, Nathalie Roy, finally tabled her reform of the status of the artist before the National Assembly on Wednesday morning. It therefore took the Legault government four years to fulfill its election promise and improve the working conditions of writers and visual artists, among others.
It remains to be seen whether parliamentarians will be able to adopt this bill before the next election. Many doubt it: the parliamentary session will end next June, and will take the pending bills with it.
But in the cultural community, which has been asking for this overhaul for several years, the hope of seeing the bill adopted in time still remains. Especially since the CAQ government showed itself open on Wednesday morning to the proposal by Québec solidaire to transfer the study of the bill to the Committee on Citizen Relations, which is less busy these days than the Committee on Education and Culture, which would normally have the mandate to study it.
Minister Roy believes that this way of doing things will allow Bill 35 to be adopted before the adjournment of proceedings. “Between parliamentarians of goodwill, I think we could get there,” she said, extending her hand to the opposition parties during the study of budgetary appropriations.
“Historic” day for writers
During a press briefing in the afternoon, Minister Roy welcomed her plan to bring together in a single piece of legislation the two laws that have governed the working conditions of artists since the end of the 1980s.
Great disparities exist between these two laws at present: that which applies to the performing arts and the audiovisual sector has much more bite than that which concerns the world of literature, visual arts and trades. of art. Writers and visual artists thus have much less leeway than their colleagues when the time comes to negotiate a contract with their publisher or producer, which often results in much less advantageous working conditions.
“The law that framed us so far was not a good law. Fortunately, this bill plans to repeal it. There was an imbalance. What weight had a young author who was writing his first novel to negotiate with a big publisher? “explains Suzanne Aubry, president of the Union of Writers and Writers (UNEQ), who welcomes a “historic” bill.
This consecrates in particular the UNEQ as a trade union in good and due form. It will be able to negotiate minimum conditions for authors and will have direct contact with the National Association of Book Publishers, who ishas long been opposed to the reform of the status of the artist.
UDA satisfied
In addition to the question of writers and visual artists, the text defended by Minister Roy responds to a range of long-standing complaints from the cultural community. In particular, it enshrines in the law certain provisions regarding psychological and sexual harassment in the workplace. Bill 35 also expands the access of artists to the Administrative Labor Tribunal, which until then was restricted since most of them are contract employees.
The Union of Artists (UDA) said it was satisfied with the changes that will be made to the legislation. Its president, Sophie Prégent, was also delighted that Bill 35 also tightens the screw on producers who are not part of the Quebec Association of Media Producers (AQPM), and who are therefore not under agreement. “When a producer is not part of the AQPM, we have the obligation to negotiate an agreement only between him and us. Except that negotiating an agreement takes a very long time. He has time to finish his film 100 times and to close his company to no longer be accountable. There, with this bill, we will have more grip, ”she illustrates.
Few reviews
The reform is therefore well received by the cultural community. In the National Assembly, the opposition parties were thus careful not to criticize the content of the text, contenting themselves instead with deploring that the Legault government took so long to give birth to the bill.
Minister Roy maintains that the pandemic is partly responsible for the delays in the drafting of the bill, an explanation that her political opponents welcome with skepticism.
Liza Frulla and Louise Beaudoin, who were appointed in 2019 to conduct consultations on the status of the artist, however, came to her aid on Wednesday. The health crisis has considerably delayed the process, confirmed these two former Ministers of Culture, who also ensure that this is also the reason for the hasty end of their mandate, not any lack of will on the part of the minister. “This is an excellent bill, very balanced. I hope now that there will be no partisanship and that members will be able to pass it quickly. I know it’s possible to do it before the end of the session”, launched Mme Frulla to parliamentarians.