After nearly a decade of stagnation, Canada’s arts and culture sector is now growing at twice as fast as the country’s overall economy, outpacing industries such as oil and gas, retail trade and manufacturing, according to a new study.
The report, released Tuesday by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, found the sector directly contributed $65 billion to the economy last year, representing about two per cent of the country’s GDP. In the past three years, Canada’s arts and culture industries grew by almost eight per cent, well above the overall economic average of four per cent, the research noted.
These trends, however, are in spite of declining public funding and private donations for the arts. Cultural policy experts also warn that the industry’s growth is likely unsustainable unless investment meets the sector’s needs.
“This success is a demonstration of how resourceful and resilient artists and cultural organizations are,” said Aubrey Reeves, president and CEO of Business/Arts, the national charity that co-commissioned the report with the Canada Council for the Arts, the crown corporation that acts as the country’s national arts granting body. “But there is a ceiling. We can’t have infinite growth on the backs of artists.”
The report, which analyzed data provided by Statistics Canada, also found as well that every dollar of federal government investment in the arts and culture sector generates $29 in economic activity.
In Ontario, the sector directly contributed $27 billion to the country’s GDP. (This refers to production directly attributable to an arts or cultural organization, including operations and ticket sales, instead of indirect contributions from other businesses in the supply chain that support those organizations.)
The report comes amid threats to the country’s sovereignty and a broader reckoning about the role of arts and culture in Canadian society. It also arrives as Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to present his first budget next week, which he has said will include “austerity” cuts, prompting concern from some in the arts sector, which is heavily reliant on federal investments.
In the 2025-26 fiscal year, the federal government is expected to spend just over $4.5 billion on the arts and culture sector, down nearly $130 million from 2023-24.
Garry Neil, an arts and cultural policy expert, said he’s concerned policymakers will draw the wrong conclusions from this report and justify spending cuts by arguing that investment is not correlated with the industry’s economic growth.
“The conclusion you shouldn’t take is that we don’t need the government to do as much as we’ve been doing in the past,” he said. “Instead, we have to ensure that, given the global pressures on us, particularly from the south, we can continue or improve this pace of growth. It’s always been the case that our arts and culture sector is under appreciated in terms of its value, particularly its pure economic value.”
Neil added that the report doesn’t necessarily paint a complete picture of the state of Canada’s arts and cultural industries. While the overall trends are positive, he noted that some subsectors lag behind others. In the music industry, for instance, large concert promoters may be faring well, but we’ve also witnessed a wave of smaller live music venues shuttering since the pandemic, limiting opportunities for emerging artists, he said.
Miriam Kramer, executive director of government relations and public policy at OCAD University’s Cultural Policy Hub, said that despite some of the challenges in the sector, it feels like this is “the time” for the industry to thrive, similar to the boom experienced in the 1960s, following the release of the Massey Commission’s landmark report in 1951 spurring massive innovation in the cultural sphere.
“I think one of the biggest takeaways right now should be not only the importance of the sector to the economy, but also to Canadian sovereignty and identity,” she said. “This is the time for us to shine and really show our impact.”
