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Section I – Overview
Chairperson's Message
The Canadian Artists and Producers Professional Relations Tribunal administers a collective bargaining regime for professional self-employed artists and producers in federal jurisdiction. Under Part II of the Status of the Artist Act, the Tribunal defines sectors of artistic and cultural activity for collective bargaining, certifies artists' associations to represent artists working in those sectors, and resolves complaints of unfair labour practices and other matters brought forward by parties under the Act.
Parliament passed the Status of the Artist Act in 1992 as part of a commitment to recognize and reward the contribution of artists to the cultural, social, economic and political enrichment of the country. The Act reflects the recognition that constructive professional relations in the arts and culture sector are an important element of a vibrant Canadian culture and heritage.
Over the past twelve years, the Tribunal has defined 26 sectors of artistic activity and certified 24 artists' associations to represent them. Certified artists' associations have concluded over 60 scale agreements with producers, including government producers and specialty television services, since their certification. In over half of these, this is the first time that the parties have concluded a scale agreement.
While the Tribunal continues to make progress towards its strategic outcome of constructive professional relations between self-employed artists and producers in its jurisdiction, recent developments have challenged the Tribunal to shift the focus of its work. Broadcasting, one of the principal areas of the Tribunal's jurisdiction, is undergoing dramatic transformations – mergers, changes of ownership, new technologies, and the disruption of traditional business models – and these will have a significant impact on the work of the Tribunal. The complexity of the new digital media environment presents artists, artists' association and broadcasters with unprecedented challenges related to certification and negotiation. The Tribunal needs to understand these developments to ensure that labour law principles and the Tribunal's own precedents are applied appropriately.
Much of the work of the Tribunal until recently focused on certification. Most sectors are now defined, and artists' associations are certified to represent them. The Tribunal will likely be called upon to deal with changes in the definition of sectors, and possibly changes in representation, but otherwise its work will probably increasingly shift to complaints and determinations.
To realize its strategic outcome fully, the Tribunal needs to ensure that the Act is widely known and well understood, and that its services are understood and known by the client community to be readily available. Accordingly, for this year and the immediate future the Tribunal has refocused its efforts on fully informing and assisting artists, artists' associations, and producers of their rights and responsibilities under the Act and of the services that the Tribunal can make available to them.
The Tribunal remains committed to recommendations that came out of the Department of Canadian Heritage's 2002 review of the Act. These include amendments to permit arbitration in negotiations for first contracts, streamlining of the process for adding professional categories to be covered by the Act, and the creation of an association of government producers that would negotiate with artists' associations.
The Tribunal is also of the view that an amendment to the Act might facilitate the development of provincial status of the artist legislation. Such legislation would be an important complement to the work of the Tribunal, since so much cultural and artistic work takes place in provincial jurisdiction. At present, Quebec is the only province with a legislated collective bargaining regime for artists and producers. Several other provinces have recently considered similar enactments, but there are concerns about the cost of new provincial specialty tribunals to administer collective bargaining for the cultural sector. The Tribunal believes that, where a provincial statute and the Status of the Artist Act are substantially uniform, there would be advantages in an amendment to the Status of the Artist Act that would permit the Minister and the province to agree that the Tribunal would administer the provincial law on behalf of the province. This would allow the provinces to take advantage of the expertise and resources of the Tribunal, and contribute to consistent administration of similar legislation.
Management Representation Statement
I submit for tabling in Parliament, the 2006 –2007 Performance Report for the Canadian Artists and Producers Professional Relations Tribunal.
This document has been prepared based on the reporting principles contained in the Guide for the Preparation of Part III of the 2006 –2007 Estimates: Reports on Plans and Priorities and Departmental Performance Reports:
- It adheres to the specific reporting requirements outlined in the Treasury Board Secretariat guidance;
- It is based on the department's approved Strategic Outcome and Program Activity Architecture that were approved by the Treasury Board;
- It presents consistent, comprehensive, balanced and reliable information;
- It provides a basis of accountability for the results achieved with the resources and authorities entrusted to it; and
- It reports finances based on approved numbers from the Estimates and the Public Accounts of Canada.
_______________________________________
Peter Annis
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer
September 14, 2007
Summary Information
Reason for existence
The Canadian Artists and Producers Professional Relations Tribunal administers Part II of the Status of the Artist Act, which governs professional relations between self-employed artists and producers in federal jurisdiction. In doing so, the Tribunal contributes to constructive professional relations between these parties.
| 2006-2007 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Planned Spending | Total Authorities | Actual Spending |
| $1,900 | $1,900 | $1,340 |
| 2006-2007 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Planned | Actual | Difference |
| 10 | 10 | 0 |
| 2006-2007 ($ thousands) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Status on Performance | Planned Spending | Actual Spending | ||
| Strategic Outcome: Constructive professional relations between self-employed artists and producers in CAPPRT's jurisdiction | ||||
| Priority No. 1 | Prompt and high quality processing of cases | Met | $1,600 | $1,140 |
| Priority No. 2 | Fully informed and assisted clients | Met | $300 | $200 |
In its Report on Plans and Priorities for 2006-2007, the Tribunal indicated that one of its priorities would be to work on amendments to the Status of the Artist Act, to bring about changes recommended in the 2002 evaluation of the Act. The Tribunal removed this initiative from its priorities because ultimately only the Department of Canadian Heritage can propose amendments to the legislation. However, the Tribunal continues to believe that the changes proposed in the 2002 evaluation of the Act would be beneficial, and remains ready to assist the Department should it begin work on amendments. This decision had no resource implications.
Overall Tribunal Performance
Mandate, Role and Responsibilities
The Canadian Artists and Producers Professional Relations Tribunal is a quasi-judicial, independent federal agency that administers Part II of the Status of the Artist Act, which governs professional relations between self-employed artists and federally regulated producers. The Tribunal reports to Parliament through the Minister of Labour. The Minister of Canadian Heritage also has responsibilities pursuant to Part II of the Act.
Under the Canadian constitution, labour relations between the vast majority of workers and employers fall under provincial jurisdiction. The federal government has jurisdiction over labour relations in a small number of sectors, including broadcasting, telecommunications, banking, interprovincial transportation, and federal government institutions. The Tribunal is one of four federal agencies that regulate labour relations. The other three are the Canada Industrial Relations Board, which deals with labour relations between private sector employers in federal jurisdiction and their employees, the Public Service Labour Relations Board, which deals with labour relations between federal government institutions and their employees, and the Public Service Staffing Tribunal, which deals with complaints from federal public service employees related to internal appointments and lay-offs.
The Tribunal's jurisdiction over producers is set out in the Status of the Artist Act, and covers broadcasting undertakings under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, federal government departments, and the majority of federal agencies and Crown corporations (such as the National Film Board and the national museums).
The Tribunal's jurisdiction over self-employed artists also is set out in the Status of the Artist Act, and includes artists covered by the Copyright Act (such as writers, photographers, and music composers), performers (such as actors, musicians, and singers), directors, and other professionals who contribute to the creation of a production, such as those doing camera work, lighting and costume design.
The Tribunal has the following statutory responsibilities:
- To define the sectors of cultural activity suitable for collective bargaining between artists' associations and producers,
- To certify artists' associations to represent self-employed artists working in these sectors, and
- To deal with complaints of unfair labour practices and other matters brought forward by artists, artists' associations, and producers, and prescribe appropriate remedies.
Artists' associations certified under the Status of the Artist Act have the exclusive right to negotiate scale agreements with producers. A scale agreement specifies the minimum terms and conditions under which producers engage the services of, or commission a work from, a self-employed artist in a specified sector.
The Status of the Artist Act and the Tribunal's statutory responsibilities, professional category regulations, decisions, and reports to Parliament and central agencies can be found on the Tribunal's Web site at www.capprt-tcrpap.gc.ca.
Figure 1 illustrates the Tribunal's responsibilities and the key processes under the Status of the Artist Act, Part II.
Figure 1. Tribunal Responsibilities and Key Processes
STATUS OF THE ARTIST ACT
Operating Environment and Context
The economics of artistic endeavour
Culture and the arts contribute significantly to Canada's economy. In 2002, the most recent year for which statistics are available, the arts and culture sector contributed $39 billion to the Canadian economy – almost 4 percent of gross domestic product. Beyond their economic contribution, Canadian artists enrich our lives and represent us at home and abroad.
Their earnings, however, do not reflect their contributions to the country. According to Statistics Canada, artists' average income rose 26 percent from 1991 to 2001. Yet that increase only brought their average income to $23,500, still well below the average for all workers in Canada ($31,800), despite the higher than average level of education of artists.
Besides having lower earnings, many artists are self-employed, and thus do not have the advantages enjoyed by employees, such as employment insurance, training benefits and pension funds. For example, according to the census, almost 70 percent of visual artists and close to 50 percent of writers and craftspersons work as independent entrepreneurs. An estimated 100,000 self-employed artists fall under the Tribunal's jurisdiction.1
The federal government has various institutions, programs and policies to recognize and support artists and producers. The Status of the Artist Act and the Tribunal are part of the federal support system for Canadian arts and culture.
Limitations of the Status of the Artist Act
The impact of the Act is limited, however, by its application to a small jurisdiction. Most work in the cultural sector, including the vast majority of film and television production, sound recording, art exhibitions, theatrical production and book publishing, falls under the jurisdiction of the provinces. To date, Quebec is the only province with legislation granting collective bargaining rights to self-employed artists. The need for provincial legislation was recognized by the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage in its ninth report in 1999, and by the Department of Canadian Heritage in its 2002 evaluation2 of the provisions and operations of the Status of the Artist Act.
Saskatchewan adopted enabling legislation on the status of the artist in 2002, and the Saskatchewan government has attempted to introduce a legal collective bargaining framework for artistic work, but as yet the legislation has not passed. The province of Ontario recently passed legislation that dealt with status of the artist, but did not address collective bargaining.
The Tribunal supports the adoption of status of the artist legislation by more provinces. The Tribunal assisted the Saskatchewan legislature, at its request, in its deliberations on its status of the artist legislation, describing how the federal model works and the experience and lessons learned since the federal act was passed. The Tribunal will continue to provide information to policy makers and others interested in the benefits of such legislation.
The Act's effectiveness is also limited because few federal government institutions – one of the class of producers covered by the Act – have entered into scale agreements with artists' associations. Artists' associations are typically hard-pressed for time and resources, and they would rather negotiate with producers' associations than with individual producers. Similarly, many government producers would prefer to designate one department as their lead negotiator. One of the recommendations from the Department of Canadian Heritage's 2002 evaluation report was that the government consider establishing a single bargaining authority for all departments. The Tribunal supports this recommendation, as it would facilitate the bargaining process and make it more cost-effective.
The challenge of operating a small federal agency
Its specific legislation and unique stakeholder base aside, the Tribunal is like any other federal government department: it must exercise care and restraint in the spending of public funds, and provide Parliament and Canadians with transparent and accountable reporting. At its creation in 1993, the Tribunal adopted efficient business practices, with clear statements of objectives, high standards for service delivery, a comprehensive performance measurement framework, and transparent reporting on its activities and results. Its management team embraced this framework at its inception and has been guided by it as it evolves.
As a very small agency, the Tribunal faces a particular operating challenge, with its small staff responsible for a myriad of tasks. This is compounded by the fact that the workload is unpredictable and changing, since parties themselves decide whether to bring cases to the Tribunal. To meet these particular challenges, the Tribunal follows flexible practices such as contracting-out and sharing of accommodation, as described in Section II under Financial Management and Leadership.
Alignment with Government of Canada Outcomes
In encouraging constructive labour relations between self-employed artists and producers in its jurisdiction, the Tribunal expects that artists' income and working conditions will improve, artists will be more likely to pursue their careers in the arts, and producers will have an adequate pool of talented and trained artists. Thus, the Tribunal's single operating program aligns with the Government's intended outcome of a vibrant Canadian culture and heritage.
Overall Performance
The Tribunal has one strategic outcome, constructive professional relations between self-employed artists and producers under its jurisdiction, and one program activity, processing of cases brought before it. Its overall performance is equivalent to its “performance by strategic outcome,” reported in Section II. As will be seen in Section II, the Tribunal continues to make progress in achieving its strategic outcome.
