Cultural workers left out of CERB benefit
On March 25, 2020, the federal government announced the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (“CERB” ) which provides support of $2,000 per month for Canadians who are out of work as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As of the time of writing, many cultural workers - artists, dancers, musicians, creators - in Canada are ineligible for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), as the eligibility requirements don’t fit with the reality of most cultural workers in Canada, whose income is often pieced together from a variety of sources, including part-time or gig-economy work outside of the arts.
Prior to COVID-19, the current state of the art and music industry in Canada made it impossible for many cultural workers to make their complete incomes from cultural work alone. To make ends meet, most cultural workers in Canada derived their income through a variety of activities, including performance, touring, recording, gallery exhibitions, publishing, teaching, arts administration positions.
In addition to this, to make ends meet, many cultural workers hold part-time jobs in other fields. In the current crisis, nearly all aspects of public cultural activity in Canada has been suspended, leaving most of these cultural workers with cancellations or postponements, and a subsequent loss of a majority portion of their income. Because of the nature of multiple income streams, many have been able to retain a small portion of their income through a combination of part-time work and/or by working at home.
Faced with the uncertainty of the current crisis and the prospect of making not being able to make ends meets, many cultural workers have found creative solutions to income generation: album sales, streaming concerts, and online lessons, to name a few. However, with the loss of most income streams, these measures only provide a small percentage of relief. Unfortunately, under current CERB requirements, these workers will be ineligible for for relief. As of writing, CERB applicants must demonstrate not having received any income in 14 days.
This is a problem for those artists whose income comes from a variety of sources, and who have lost most of their income, even though some of their earnings like online gig work or residual album sales, are ongoing.
Excluding artists from the CERB benefit is wrong, especially, since similar requirements have already been lifted for EI applicants. In short, the current rules punish workers who are able to scrape together a small amount of income in the last month, and in many ways incentives them to stop work completely.
Artists are not the only workers left out of the current CERB benefit. Notably, workers who were unemployed prior to the pandemic are ineligible for the benefit. Recent work by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives estimates that at least 1/3 of unemployed Canadians will not be eligible for the benefit.
Written with the assistance of Craig Pedersen, who is musician and sound artist residing in Montreal QC, and a founder of the independent Mystery and Wonder record label.
