The Minister of Canadian Heritage, the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, today shared further details regarding the Government of Canada’s April 17 announcement of temporary relief measures to support the culture, heritage and sport sectors as they manage the challenges and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and plan for the future. A total of up to $500 million has been set aside to help alleviate the financial pressures of affected organizations.
Starting today, partner organizations will be contacted so that funds can begin to flow to cultural and sport organizations. Canadian Heritage is working closely with its partners – in particular, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Canada Media Fund, FACTOR, Musicaction, and Telefilm Canada – to distribute the funds as quickly as possible using existing channels.
The distribution of funding will include:
- Up to $326.8 million to be administrated by Canadian Heritage and divided among select departmental programs and Portfolio agencies as well as key delivery organizations. Specifically:
- $198.3 million will be provided to the beneficiaries of arts and culture funding via existing programs as well as other organizations with demonstrated needs;
- $72 million will be provided to the sport sector;
- $53 million will be provided to the heritage sector via the emergency component of the Museums Assistance Program; and,
- $55 million to be distributed by the Canada Council for the Arts;
- $3.5 million will be provided for COVID-related projects under the Digital Citizen Initiative.
- $115.8 to support the Canadian audiovisual sector, to be distributed by the Canada Media Fund ($88.8 million) and Telefilm Canada ($27 million).
The use of the remaining funds will be assessed based on needs.
