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Sent by email to the Honourable Lisa Macleod, Minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism, and Culture Industries.

Dear Minister Macleod:

I am writing to thank you most sincerely for your advocacy on behalf of your Ministry’s many and varied stakeholders: as you’ve emphasized in your town hall meetings, Ontario’s heritage, sport, tourism, and culture industries are the proverbial canaries in the coal mine, feeling the impact of the public health measures required by COVID-19 both early and deeply. Thank you for that acknowledgment.

I’d also like to introduce my organization and the organizations and artists on whose behalf we work. I am executive director of Orchestras Canada/Orchestres Canada, the national association for Canadian orchestras. We have 130 member orchestras across Canada, and an astonishing sixty-nine of them are based here in Ontario. The diversity of Ontario’s orchestras (ranging from internationally-renowned ensembles that engage skilled professionals to perform at home in Ontario and on the world stage, volunteer-driven groups performing for neighbours and friends, our vibrant youth orchestras, seniors’ groups, big-city and small-town orchestras alike, from Thunder Bay to Ottawa, from Timmins to Windsor) is unique in Canada.

Each one of these charitable, not-for-profit groups is a source of pride to its community, and the 1366 live concerts that they performed last year – in venues ranging from concert halls to prisons, schools to parks – reached over 860,000 Ontarians. Ontario orchestras paid almost $42 million in artist fees in 2018-19; as well, they engage administrators, fundraisers, marketing personnel, and production crews as well as an army of volunteers to ensure that concerts happen, and that the public is well served.

In normal times, Ontario’s orchestras benefit from healthy and diverse revenue streams: our 2018-19 data confirms that orchestras earned 38.3% of their annual revenues (through ticket sales and sold services); raised 42.9% of their annual revenues (through charitable donations, sponsorships, and special fundraising events); with government funding (municipal, federal, and provincial) making up the final 18.7% (including 2% from provincial sources, principally the Ontario Arts Council). Ontario orchestras’ revenues in 2018-19 was almost $76.5 million; expenses (75% of which involved payments directly to people) totaled $74.3 million.

The measures necessary to combat the spread of COVID-19, in combination with the impact of turbulence in the stock market, have combined to create a perfect storm for our province’s orchestras: we’ve effectively lost access to over 80% of our revenues and while the full impact will likely be felt across two fiscal years (at a minimum), it is – and will be – significant.

Absent these revenues, orchestras with some cash reserves or borrowing capacity may be able to compensate contracted artists and administrators in the short term, but profoundly compromise their ability to re-open the doors with engaging programming when public gatherings are safe again; orchestras without cash reserves simply cannot pay their skilled artists and administrators, risking future access to these skilled professionals and delaying (perhaps permanently) their re-launch.

We’ve been following federal announcements about COVID-19 relief measures, and OC is encouraging our members to participate as appropriate.  We’ve also been following the province’s work, and we have some additional thoughts on the role that the Province of Ontario, through your Ministry and others, might play in softening the impact of COVID-19 and ensure that our orchestras are ready to welcome Ontarians – indeed, the world! – back to arts venues across the province when the time is right.

In brief, we ask that you:

1. Ensure that the Ontario Arts Council can expedite grant payments to the organizations and artists that have been awarded grants, including multi-year commitments. If the OAC currently receives its allocation from the province quarterly, consider providing the OAC with at least 50% of its annual allocation now, so that grants can be released quickly. We also urge you to consider supplementary funding for the arts through the OAC.
2. Help broker relationships between the intrepid Ontario arts organizations (including orchestras) that have developed wonderful, curriculum-linked on-line educational resources and the Ministry of Education, so that existing on-line education materials can be refreshed and made available to Ontario learners.
3. Include representatives from the not for profit arts sector in your round table consultations on immediate mitigation measures and recovery-oriented initiatives, whether industry-specific or regional. While we have much in common with artists and companies on the commercial side of the sector, and with the other stakeholders served by your Ministry, our needs and contributions are distinct – and we’d value the dialogue with you and with colleagues across the province.

Again, Minister Macleod, Ontario’s orchestras value the work that you, your team, and the Government of Ontario are doing, and we look forward to continued and productive exchange. Many thanks.

Sincerely,

Katherine Carleton, C.M.
Executive Director
Orchestras Canada/Orchestres Canada

We encourage you to download the PDF of this letter and to share it with your MP.

Download Letter PDF

A template for a ‘cover letter’ email is also available for your use here:

Download Cover Letter

Sent by email to: The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Heritage; The Honourable Bill Morneau, Minister of Finance; The Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development; The Honourable Diane LeBouthillier, Minister of National Revenue; The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs; The Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, President, Treasury Board.

Dear Ministers,

We write on behalf of 130 member orchestras – including 70 professional and semi-professional ensembles – across the country, the musicians they engage, and the communities they serve. We request your help in securing urgently needed assistance for artists, arts workers, and arts organizations grappling with the impact of COVID-19 and the necessary measures in place to control its spread.

In 2018-19, Canadian orchestras reached almost 2.8 million Canadians through live performances in concert halls and community venues, and millions of others through streaming and recordings. From St. John’s to Victoria, from Prince George to Charlottetown (and many places in between), Canadians benefit from orchestras’ activities, whether through public concerts, youth orchestra programs, seniors’ programs, community music schools, concerts in and for schools, newcomer welcoming, social prescribing and support to music therapy programs, and sheer, enriching pleasure.

The Financial Impact of COVID-19 on Orchestras

Mandated closures and the economic effects of COVID-19 mean that orchestras are looking at losing a minimum of 3 to 4 months of non-governmental revenue in the short term; followed by several challenging seasons of rebuilding attendance, donations, and ticket sales.

Our high-level estimate of the short-term revenue loss is this: there are over 70 orchestras in Canada, and collectively we are looking at losing between $38 million and $50 million in non-governmental revenues this season. This represents between 17% and 23% of our total annual revenue for the year.

We are currently working to survey our members to determine the impact in more detail, and will share those results with you as soon as we can.

We already know that this is creating significant challenges for employees and for liquidity. There have already been major layoffs announced at the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and we anticipate many more announcements in the coming weeks.

We have identified the following actions to help orchestras address the immediate challenges of COVID-19 and the economic challenges it has brought.

Urgent Short-Term Measures

1. Access to working capital

Orchestras echo Imagine Canada’s request that the Government of Canada consider the needs of charities and not-for-profits in designing support and recovery programs, including enhanced access to working capital loans. The Federal Government can take immediate action to help orchestras by doing the following:

• Accelerate payment schedules for all grants from government departments and arms-length funders for the 2020/21 fiscal year to help relieve cash flow pressures. This is an action that other levels of government, including the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, have already started to work on.
• Remove the exclusion of organizations that further a charitable purpose under the Canada Small Business Financing Act. This will allow many orchestras across Canada to benefit from the leadership and support of Canada’s banks during this crisis.

2. Help us pay our people – to sustain us through the crisis and help us recover afterwards

Orchestras need access to immediate funding to ensure that they can honour their commitments to guest artists, staff, and musicians (both musicians with annual contracts, and freelance musicians contracted for individual concerts) through to the end of the 2019-20 season.

We recognize that, in common with many other industries, orchestras will commence (and, in fact, already have commenced) laying off people. We applaud the creation of the Small Business Wage Subsidy Program; as well as the Emergency Care Benefit and Emergency Support Benefit to support workers who would not normally be eligible for Employment Insurance. These will be an essential lifeline for many of the musicians and staff that we engage.

We want to work with you to ensure that our artists are eligible to participate based on the true extent of their work week, including permitting musicians to include practice and preparation time as hours worked for eligibility purposes. A typical collective agreement for a professional orchestra caps musicians’ onsite work week at eight 2.5-hour services per week; but the expectation is that musicians will have invested at least as much time in practice and preparation to maintain and sharpen their skills, and ensure that they are in top playing condition for all rehearsals and performances. Not unlike our elite athletes, musicians are continually “training” for their work.

While the Small Business Wage Subsidy, Employment Insurance and the Emergency Support Benefit—as announced—are of great help, orchestras are also in need of additional support, including enhancements to the Small Business Wage Subsidy and one-time funding to offset losses to enable them to continue paying essential staff and musicians throughout this crisis, for three reasons:

• Music plays an essential role in bringing community together, and offering comfort and healing. We are excited about using digital platforms to sustain and extend Canadians’ opportunities to engage with music, and want to compensate musicians fairly for their work in this period of great uncertainty.
• When larger community gatherings and travel become safe again, orchestras must be well-positioned to bring our communities back together. If orchestras file for bankruptcy or lay-off core staff and musicians for prolonged periods, they will face challenges in executing the marketing, programming, and fundraising plans that will make a quick recovery possible. Earned revenue (principally through ticket sales) made up 35.8% of Canadian orchestras’ income in 2018-19; it’s vital that orchestras are well-positioned to re-engage that revenue stream when public performances are again possible.
• Contributed income through donations, sponsorships, and special events made up 40.2% of orchestras’ revenue in 2018-19. Maintaining relationships with community partners, donors, sponsors, and funders through this time of disruption is key to a quick recovery.

3. Help Canadians support musicians and orchestras by making early 2020 donations eligible for use in 2019 tax credits

Allowing 2020 donations (up to a certain date) to be credited to the 2019 tax year will help musicians, orchestras, and Canadians. Since charitable tax credits are offered by the Federal Government and Provinces, we see this as a relatively easy opportunity to coordinate assistance with Provinces.

• It helps orchestras keep operating and paying people. In our financial modelling to date, donated revenue is the source of the single greatest uncertainty. Orchestras are charities; for many of us, contributed funds are our largest single source of revenue.
• It helps reduce revenue losses from cancelled concerts and events by making it easier for our audiences to feel like they can support us by donating back the value of cancelled tickets.
• It helps individuals at this crucial point by increasing their tax refund or reducing their tax payable.
• It helps raise donations for artist support funds, such as the Actors’ Fund of Canada, Fondation des Artistes, and Unison Benevolent Fund.

Longer-Term Recovery Measures

We encourage the Federal government to start thinking now about the time after COVID-19, once social distancing can be eased or is no longer required to manage the health impacts of this crisis. The arts and culture sector has a major role to play in community resilience and celebration; forethought now will help ensure a stronger, more complete recovery later. Such measures could include:

Recovery and Resilience

Help people regain confidence with participating in large community activities again through:

• Direct investments in marketing and promotion initiatives to rebuild audiences and revitalize relationships with our communities and with cultural tourists.
• Direct investments in artistic programming designed to engage with community, restore social cohesion,and connect people through the arts.

Long-term financial measures:

• A time-limited matching funding initiative, that enables arts organizations that are registered charities to get matching funds from the government for gifts to operating costs. In some cases, the matching funds could be directed to endowments to ensure short-term and long-term sustainability at the same time.

We are happy to contribute our ideas, and hope that we can work with you over the coming months to ensure strong plans are in place to deal with the long-term economic effects of this crisis. We are orchestras, and bringing people together is what we do. We look forward to continuing this work, for and with Canadians, in the near future.

We wish you well in your deliberations. Thank you. Sincerely,

Tanya Derksen
President of the Board of Directors
Orchestras Canada

Katherine Carleton, CM
Executive Director
Orchestras Canada

With the 2019 federal election behind us, and the new cabinet recently announced, now is a good time to reach out to your Member of Parliament to make them aware of the important work that your orchestra is doing in their riding. In consultation with out government relations advisor, Éric Dubeau, we’ve prepared a template letter to send to MPs in your area, congratulating them on their election or re-election.

We encourage you to send letters to all MPs in your city/region, not just the one where your orchestra is located: match your correspondence to your audience data. If you don’t know who your MP is, or how to contact them, you can find their name and contact details here. We also encourage you to tailor this template letter as appropriate, making it specific to your orchestra, your region, and the party affiliation of the MPs you’re writing to.

1. Sending this letter by email is possible, but a physical letter means that you can include a season brochure and other relevant materials.
2. If you’re sending by post, be sure to use the constituency address, not the Parliament Hill address.

Download Template Letter

As part of Orchestras Canada’s ongoing advocacy work on behalf of Canadian orchestras, we asked our government affairs consultant, Éric Dubeau, to prepare an analysis of the major Federal parties’ electoral platforms, with a specific focus on arts and culture commitments.

You can find the analysis here. (Updated October 17th)

Here in Peterborough-Kawartha, Orchestras Canada will be participating in an all-candidates meeting on arts and culture on October 9, and Katherine will be asking the candidates to talk about the Canada Council for the Arts.  We’d love to know what you’re hearing from your candidates – feel free to update Katherine by phone (705.243.6640) or email ([email protected]) if you have insights to share.