Back to the Premier: Over 60% of AGO workers are precarious part-time workers, and they’re kept that way—they are contract. They can’t make enough hours to meet the full-time threshold, because, they told me yesterday, the AGO puts up roadblocks. All this, while the AGO contracts out, while AGO execs have recently received salary bonuses of up to 59.6%. While there’s “no more money for wages,” we’ve got the AGO CEO making over $400,000 a year, with bonuses of $250,000 annually.

My question is back to the Premier: Does this government think this is fair? How are they prepared to work with the AGO and get the employer to the table to have these workers get what they deserve: fair wages, full-time opportunities, protection against contracting out and livable hours of work?

To the Premier: Over 400 Art Gallery of Ontario workers are on strike, and many of these cultural workers are artists themselves. They’re here today. These are the people who welcome us into the AGO. They set up and they dismount art installations. They hang the art. They provide educational enrichment through tours. They helped raise funds for the AGO’s new building. They clean the gallery. But they are struggling to pay rent and buy food. Because of their hard work, the AGO has become a world-class destination, and yet this government hasn’t increased the AGO’s budget in over 10 years.

My question is to the Premier: Will this Conservative government properly fund arts institutions so their deficits aren’t being balanced on the backs of the least-paid workers? Will the Premier show them the “Monet”?

Ontario’s arts and culture sector represents over $28 billion, approximately 3.5% of the province’s GDP, and creates some 300,000 jobs and counting. There is no question that this sector is an economic engine that will only grow and remain competitive with real, sustainable government investment.

We are hearing from theatre companies; culture, heritage, arts organizations; individual artists; cultural workers; and festivals. For many, the costs are skyrocketing—costs for insurance, security, venue rentals, staffing and labour, even production cost. Softwood lumber, I’ve learned, has gone up hundreds of per cents over the years due to the closures of mills.

My question is to the Premier: For the love of arts, will this government stop gutting the Ontario Arts Council and Experience Ontario so the curtains don’t close on our culture sector?

Interjections.

My question is back to the Premier. This government referred to the culture sector as the “first hit,” “hardest hit” and “last to recover” during the pandemic; remember that.

In my community, Rastafest organizers are worried, especially Little Jamaica, where festivals like Sinting also saw zero investment from this province. The Toronto Caribbean Carnival—the largest festival in North America, annually contributing nearly half a billion dollars to Ontario’s GDP and creating 4,000 direct jobs—is asking for $2.5 million annually for the next three years so they can keep their heads above water.

Just for Laughs, Hot Docs, Taste of the Danforth, Home County Music and Art Festival in London, Supercrawl and more need real, sustainable help.

Speaker, my question is back to the Premier: Does this government have a provincial culture strategy with teeth, with dollars, to help creative industries keep their lights on, and if not, why not?

Good morning. My question is to the Premier—

Interjections.

My question is to—

Interjections.

Interjections.

My question is to the Premier. This government’s cut of $5 million this year to the Ontario Arts Council and continued failure to match funding to inflation is being felt deeply across Ontario, and Toronto–St. Paul’s is no exception. This year, Ballet Jörgen’s funding was cut by 16%. As a result, they have been forced to cut staff and free programming that serves racialized, northern, rural and underinvested-in communities, all because this government failed to deliver adequate funding to see it continue.

My question is to the Premier. Will you commit to restoring their funding to meet inflation so that communities, for which the arts are a social determinant of health and well-being, can thrive?

Back to the Premier: I wrote to the Premier and minister outlining just how important Ballet Jörgen’s programming is for its dancers as well as all Ontarians, because investment into arts organizations is a guaranteed return both economically and socially. As a harm reduction strategy, social determinant of health and building block to our jobs, our economy, our tourism—the whole nine—just to name a few, our province is better for it and will pay the price without a properly funded arts sector.

My question is back to the Premier. Will he commit to Ontario’s economic future by restoring Ontario Arts Council funding in line with inflation to meet the needs of Ontario artists and organizations who depend on it for their livelihood?

My question is to the Premier. This Conservative government has cut arts, culture and heritage since taking office in 2018. Its impacts continue today on the lives of artists like near-middle-aged Eli, a part-time shift and gig contract worker who is forced to live with family due to financial strains, struggling to make ends meet while working below a livable wage with no pension or benefits.

Artists are workers too, Speaker. They have physical and mental health needs they cannot afford to address. And I would love if the Minister of Culture would actually take our request for a meeting.

My question is back to the Premier: Will today’s budget 2023 sustain or increase with inflation the $65-million Ontario Arts Council budget, reinstate the Indigenous Culture Fund, bolster CMOG for our museums, bolster libraries and help ensure that all Ontario artists and cultural workers can actually stay in Ontario?

The arts and culture sector, artists and cultural workers have been disproportionately hit by COVID, and to be frank, it’s not COVID alone. This government has chronically cut and underfunded the arts well before the pandemic, despite the fact that we can count nearly 30 billion ways in which arts and culture contributes to our GDP, not to mention the near 300,000 jobs the sector creates for our province.

Make no mistake: Committing to sustainable funding at or above the rate of inflation is key to the survival of our creative sector, a sector where most creatives weren’t even able to get CERB during the pandemic, and most in live performance saw their careers go poof without notice.

Most government funds for smaller art organizations tend to be targeted towards individual short-term projects, which does not help the organization build capacity for long-term planning. That is why I’m demanding today that the OAC budget for the Ontario Arts Council remain at $65 million in the 2023 provincial budget. On behalf of every creative worker and community-based organization in St. Paul’s, we’re pleading with this government: Do not cut the already strapped Ontario Arts Council budget again, especially with the work that they do for priority groups like deaf artists, artists with disabilities, artists of colour, francophone artists, Indigenous artists and new-generation artists, to name a few.

Speaker, visit any gallery, any museum, any theatre, any library, any art studio. The arts are the way—