Up Next: A Break For Artists and Content Creators

Things have been busy here, the R3TV Campaign is going strong, I'm still tweaking the site since the overhaul, and I've been doing some things that actually pay money as well. But, following a conversation I had last week, I think I know what's next.

Artists and content creators who decide to remain in Canada have a rough go of it. Canada is, in itself, a highly competitive market. Add to that the Geography problem. For an artist from Halifax to become well known in Vancouver takes alot of expensive travel, and/or a move. Then there is a neighboring country (won't name names) constantly flooding the market with cheap content.

Canada does, and should continue to, subsidize Canadian content but I think it's time we subsidized the artists themselves. In Ireland certain artists are exempt from taxes. I'm not suggesting an identical model. For one thing Ireland has created a bureaucracy to decide what constitutes art - dangerous political territory that. I also do not think that the Avril Lavigne's and Shania Twains of the world should live entirely tax free. Rather, what I propose is a system where income (after related expenses) derived from art and content creation would be exempt from income taxes up to 50 thousand dollars.

This would include visual art, performing arts, film, music, literature (and print publications in general) and even television, radio, and independent "amateur" media such as zines and podcasting.

There is already a personal tax exemption in this country all I'm really suggesting is that we increase that exemption for artists in recognition of the difficulty in making a living in the arts and in Canadian content in general. This would, in my opinion, make it easier for artists and performers to make ends meet, would allow more artists to stop working a second or third job and focus on their creative talents and encourage more talented, creative people to remain in Canada.

I hope to get this new campaign up and going soon to make sure there is plenty of time to get fully ramped up before the next federal election. If you have any comments, feedback or suggestions, please let me know.