As a student, I think I can speak for most of us when I say that live music—especially in the indie music scene—is an important part of the university lifestyle. Whether I’m going to support a local band or to see one of my favourite international artists, live shows are often the highlight of my week.
Here in Ottawa, many of these shows take place in small venues like Raw Sugar Café and Avant-Garde Bar.
Recently, however, the federal government decided to hike up the fees on foreign acts in a shoddy attempt to make some easy money.
The new regulations, which came into effect July 31, require any establishment where music is not the primary business to pay a $275 fee for each musician and crew member as well as $150 fee per work permit. In layman’s terms, now for a small venue to hire an international group it could be financial suicide. Owners of bars and clubs have little choice except to stop hiring foreign acts almost altogether.
One way of interpreting this policy—and the justification that minister of Employment, Social Development, and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney has offered via Twitter—is as a federal effort to open up more jobs for Canadians. But a closer look at these changes tells a very different story.
There might be an argument for these fees on big-time, international acts like U2 or the Rolling Stones, but the kicker is that shows in large arenas and festivals are exempt. Instead, the less-commercial indie music scene will suffer.
This move is harming Canada’s cultural life and is completely ignoring a whole generation of youth that is growing up in a more multicultural society than ever, with more invested in independent art than ever.
While it’s easy to dismiss us as hipsters who get off on being able to list obscure bands, many of us in the independent art scene are genuinely passionate about art and should have access to the broadest range of cultural experiences possible.
I see this policy as a display of our government’s inability to address issues that can’t be dealt with in numbers and a failure to understand what Canadians care about when it comes to art.
People don’t go to live shows thinking about labour fees and taxes, or even where the band they’re seeing is from. They go to have fun and to be inspired.
Personally, I leave each concert a wealthier person, not in terms of money, but in terms of ideas and feelings. But our government is too busy worrying about the acquisition of F-35 fighter jets to recognize the value in that.
The Conservatives have this dangerous tendency to inappropriately weigh cultural experience against monetary value. This same absurd tendency somehow made it acceptable to cut $45 million in public funding for arts in 2008, to close down the Canadian Conference of the Arts, and many other moves that have crippled Canada’s cultural activity, while failing to provide the financial benefits they promised.
These increased fees also make it far less appealing for foreign acts to perform in Canada. This means money that would’ve entered the economy through the foreign labour fees, venue bookings, ticket sales, nearby restaurants and hotels, etc. hasn’t. This will harm the Canadian entertainment business—an $11-billion industry—and, ostensibly, the economy as a whole.
For a government that talks endlessly about economic growth, it’s pretty astounding how anti-small business this policy is. Considering that small businesses account for 48 per cent of all Canadian jobs, it’s clear that Kenney hasn’t understood the “employment” part of his job title.
Yes, I want to see Canadian artists do well, and no, I’m not naive enough to think music and money aren’t related, but it’s just wrong to determine cultural activity based on what is supposedly fiscally beneficial instead of what is culturally enriching.
Usually the Harper government opts for cutting funding for the arts in order to boost other parts of our economy, but, in this case, it has come up with something that harms our culture and economy alike. So, whether you’re as pro-arts as I am or you agree with this government’s business-minded approach to everything, this policy is not looking good.
—Dario Balca,
third-year journalism and English
