The Association of Canadian Publishers (ACP) welcomes the tabling of Budget 2022, which confirms the Government of Canada’s commitment to ensuring that the Copyright Act protects all creators and copyright holders. Through the budget, the government acknowledges the importance of creating the conditions to ensure a sustainable educational publishing industry, including fair remuneration for rightsholders. Acting on this commitment will be critical to the government’s upcoming copyright reform process. Amendments are urgently needed to restore a functioning marketplace for the sales and licensing of educational materials, and to create the conditions that will encourage investment in future Canadian learning resources.
“Copyright is the foundation on which we build our businesses,” said Ruth Linka, ACP President. “Our ability to invest in the high-quality resources educators are looking for—and that Canadian students deserve—has been compromised over the last ten years. Copyright reform is urgently needed so that Canadian publishers can better serve our readers, and continue to invest in the work of Canadian writers, illustrators, translators, and other creative professionals.”
Further, ACP continues to call on government to implement the Minister of Canadian Heritage’s mandate letter commitment to increase the budgets of key writing and publishing funding programs, including the Canada Book Fund (CBF). The need for new, permanent investment in the CBF, which has not seen its budget increased for more than two decades remains, and has grown more acute as a result of the pandemic and related supply chain disruption. “The CBF serves as essential infrastructure for independent Canadian publishers, and by extension the writers they publish,” said Kate Edwards, ACP Executive Director. “The government’s commitment to increase the CBF budget is a vote of confidence in the program and in our industry. We look forward to seeing its implementation at the earliest opportunity.”