February 1, 2021

Resilience, Agility & Innovation: Canadian Publishers and COVID-19 Recovery

Written Submission to the Department of Finance from the Association of Canadian Publishers

Summary of Recommendations 

  1. 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.
  1. 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.
  1. Implement market-based solutions that encourage fair remuneration of rightsholders for use of copyright protected work through reform of the Copyright Act.
  1. Continue to offer universal emergency support programs, including the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy and Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy, through 2021.