Written Submission to the Department of Finance from the Association of Canadian Publishers
Summary of Recommendations
- Increase Canadian publishers’ competitiveness and support their recovery from COVID-19 by enhancing the Canada Book Fund for three years starting in 2021-22. Double the program’s existing $38.4M budget to $76.8M per year, with additional support towards:
- $20M per year in new funding to support CBF’s permanent programs (Support for Publishers and Support for Organizations).
- $10M per year to renew the temporary Support for Distribution program to maintain a robust book supply chain and support the sale of Canadian-authored and -published books.
- $7.4M to introduce a temporary program to stimulate the purchase of Canadian-authored and -published books by public libraries from Canadian suppliers.
- $1M to introduce a temporary postal subsidy to offset pandemic-related postage and shipping costs for Canadian-owned publishers.
- Commit to renewing the Canada Book Fund’s permanent budget before 2024-25 to ensure that Canadian-owned and -controlled book publishers can compete in a post-pandemic economy.
- Implement market-based solutions that encourage fair remuneration of rightsholders for use of copyright protected work through reform of the Copyright Act.
- Continue to offer universal emergency support programs, including the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy and Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy, through 2021.