The Department of Canadian Heritage has just released a report titled ‘What We Heard Across Canada: Canadian Culture in a Digital World’.
The 52-page PDF organizes the feedback into eight themes:
- Showcasing Canada’s cultural sector
- Reasserting the role of Canadian creators in the digital age
- Defining Canadian cultural content and Canadian cultural creators
- Adapting current funding models to a constantly changing cultural landscape
- Finding new sources of public funding is required, but where should these funds come from?
- Modernizing Canada’s legislative framework and national cultural institutions
- Clarifying the role of Canada’s public broadcaster
- Collaborating to take up the challenges ahead
According to the media release:
“Minister Joly and the Department of Canadian Heritage will continue to work together with the goal of launching Canada’s new policy toolkit for creative industries in 2017. This will mark Canada’s new direction as the country kicks off its next 150 years.”
My take: changes are coming! Maybe before July 1, 2017. With a huge portfolio and ramifications for many companies and jobs, Minister Joly must realize that change is often difficult. Will we see new programs added to the status quo, or wholesale change?