Rossiter : Yeah , I think we were really immediately clear that this was going to be , in many ways , catastrophic for a lot of our members . I think that the area where we were wrong was in knowing how long it was going to last . But I think we were very clear that we saw contracts getting cancelled , we saw the uncertainty that was coming out .
The timing of when the pandemic actually hit – and I know there ’ s never a good time – but it hit at a particularly bad time in the contracting cycle for a lot of designers . This moment in the spring , sort of between January and April , is the span of time between offers and contracts for the upcoming season . So , we had a lot of members who had shows that were about to happen that were disappearing out from under people ’ s feet , but we were also seeing offers that had been made , but for contracts that weren ’ t completed , which were also disappearing . So , for a lot of designers across the country , within two weeks of the shutdown , the entire year was wiped off the map . And so , it was really , really immediately clear . We spent a lot of time dealing with support to our members , as well as advocacy to producers and producers ’ associations of how do we deal equitably with these contractors . Because the government supports that were being announced , none of them were initially helping contractors — it was all geared towards employees . We sort of watched these things unfold and it drove us towards a lot of the early advocacy that we did with labour partners , which is what led to a lot of what happened [ with IATSE ].
Purtell : Just to underline something that Simon said about a lot of contracts being negotiated but not executed . For us , our payment schedule is in thirds . Meaning , the moment we sign a contract , we receive a third . And so , the way our juggling of money happens as freelancers is , there might be a show that I ’ m doing this year , but my first third came 18 or 12 months ago or something like that . And so , you ’ re only really making two-thirds in this calendar year . So , a lot of things happen at that point in March . As Simon said , we had to advocate with the producers ’ association , which is the Professional Association for Canadian Theatres , and we started to talk to them about what it means to cancel a contract or postpone a contract — we started to make the language , which exists very clearly in our contract , simple for them to send out . They weren ’ t negating anything that was in the contract . We just realized not many producers were acknowledging that portion of the contract . So , we ’ re trying to help our members , and they were trying to help their members , navigate their way through these contracts .
PL & P : In lobbying both the federal and provincial governments for support , especially here in Ontario , how do you feel about their relief efforts for the industry and responsiveness to your concerns during the pandemic ?
Rossiter : I may be the naysayer in some respects about some of this . So , Steven Guilbeault at Canadian Heritage , I really have very little in terms of complaints . I think with some of the initial stuff , there were some cracks that left artists a bit at risk , but I think they ’ ve made a really admirable effort to fix that .
For many years , we ’ ve been advocating as part of the granting process that there needs to be accountability for living wages paid to artists who are hired , and for many , many years , the response back has been , “ we can ’ t control that ,” or “ there ’ s nothing we can do about it .” Finally , we ’ re seeing through a lot of this advocacy , greater recognition within the granting requirements to say , “ How many people are you hiring and how much are you paying them , and is it a living wage ?” I think that ’ s a really meaningful shift that ’ s happened .
I think [ with ] the Ontario Arts Council , or certainly what came through in terms of funding , one of the big dilemmas is the really substantial package that was announced about a month ago . The perspective I have is that it was a very classic example of the rich get richer , and the poor get left in the dust . And the way in which that funding was allocated was , “ If you are an organization that already has an operating budget of a million dollars or more , we will double your OAC funding for that year . No strings attached , you don ’ t have to request it , you don ’ t have to do anything — we just double it . If you make less than a million dollars a year , you get nothing .” You can maybe apply for this grant that ’ s for $ 15,000 to do a thing , but you have to apply for the grant , you have to have a project , and then most of the people who apply aren ’ t going to get it . So , what it did was it meant the largest organizations got hundreds of thousands of dollars in emergency funding and the smaller organizations [ get nothing .] I work for a company that would have met the threshold in 2019 , but because of COVID , in 2020 they dipped below the threshold and they got nothing . So , I have strong and not particularly positive feelings about how that whole thing got rolled out .
THE ORPHEUM THEATRE IN VANCOUVER
Purtell : However , our relationship to government has generally been a very positive one . Obviously much of what we talked about with government , and especially with granting bodies , was the trickle-down economy ; and does it work ? Especially while we were talking about whether or not CERB needed to be extended , and while we were talking about a possible replacement or EI reform , and all of that . But , outwardly , many government officials are like , “ But all this money is going to the arts .” Yes , but very little [ made its way to artists ]…
I think Simon Brault , [ CEO of the Canada Council for the Arts ,] very much understood early in the pandemic that artists were in crisis almost immediately . Like , other people in the world could save money and keep themselves afloat for a year . People [ in the arts ] were not going to be able to pay their rent in April , which was
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PHOTO : MICHAEL THOENY / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS