The victorious Liberal Party of Canada made very few measurable promises to professional creators during the run-up to the April 28th vote, but The Writers’ Union of Canada and our advocacy partners will start pushing right away to see delivery on what has been discussed in the years previous… and perhaps to expand the promised territory.
“Protecting Canadian Voices” was a key plank in the Liberal platform, which noted “a strong culture is forged by the history we share and the stories we tell that are uniquely our own. In a sea of American media and disinformation, we need Canadian voices more than ever.”
Of course, Canadian authors are primarily responsible for “the stories we tell that are uniquely our own.” And with the government’s promise to “support Canadian artists and creators by increasing funding to agencies such as the Canada Council for the Arts,” TWUC will be pushing again for delivery of the Public Lending Right budget increase promised by the previous Liberal government.
The new government has also promised a lot of work and investment around artificial intelligence. In the cultural debates, there was mention of protecting human creativity and regulating the industry, but those points are less apparent in the Liberal platform document itself. TWUC will be reminding the government of its debate commitments.
2025 Federal Election Platform from The Writers’ Union of Canada
TWUC approached the 2025 federal election with three main goals:
- Increase public investment into the sector through the doubling of the PLR budget.
- Protect creative labour through strengthened copyright law.
- Regulate new technology (artificial intelligence) to protect nascent markets.
We believe a well-funded cultural space and effective market regulation are essential for creating and sharing stories in Canada. Without the stories, information, and ideas generated by authors like you, Canadians will know less about the evolving place of our country in the world.
Canada’s cultural sector contributes more than $60 billion to the national economy each year, and provides employment to over 850,000 Canadians.
We believe cultural labour is an election issue.
At a glance:
If you are meeting with candidates, attending debates, or taking campaign calls, remind the candidates that cultural workers are voters, and that our issues are election issues.
- We expect the annual Public Lending Right budget to be increased to a minimum of $30 million, and increased further annually to keep pace with cultural production.
- We expect the next Parliament to repair the Copyright Act and restore the marketplace for Canadian content. This is long overdue. We expect the Shifting Paradigms recommendations to be adopted as part of this repair.
- We expect strong and effective regulation for developing technologies. A reasonable rights licensing marketplace for the use of creative work in AI development and education must be protected and allowed to further develop.
How to get involved:
- Study the issues laid out below and be prepared to ask all parties and their candidates for positions on these issues. Learn more about TWUC’s advocacy positions.
- Keep an eye on other cultural organizations for their election platforms and kits as well:
- The Canadian Arts Coalition’s Arts Vote platform.
- The Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions’ platform.
- The Association of Canadian Publishers’ various positions.
- Access Copyright’s election toolkit.
Please Note: As a non-partisan professional association, The Writers’ Union of Canada is not directing support or criticism to any given party in the federal election. We respect the opinions and choices of each one of our members.
The next government must address the following issues. TWUC will communicate these goals to all federal parties and candidates, with the aim of seeing these details in ministerial mandates for the next government. We ask all TWUC members to help communicate these positions when candidates come door-knocking:
Increase and Sustain Investment in the Public Lending Right
Canada’s Public Lending Right (PLR) ensures compensation for authors when our work is collected in Canada’s public library systems. It exists as recognition of the great gift of library lending to Canada’s readers, and of the valuable contribution of authors in that lending. Funding for the Public Lending Right Commission is critical to individual writers and to the health of the sector.
Today’s Public Lending Right budget falls far short of compensating at a comparable level to when the program launched in 1986. The number of authors and titles eligible for PLR has quadrupled since that time, and the budget impact has simply not kept pace.
Authors have been forced to concede severe reductions in PLR payments and retirement of culturally significant works from the program.
Considering the volume of content covered by PLR (over 100,000 eligible titles and 20,000 authors), it is a very modest fund. Comparable impact funds for other sectors have long outpaced PLR. The Canada Book Fund is $39.1 million, the Canada Media Fund stands at $353 million, the Periodical Fund is now $95 million, while the journalism fund going primarily to newspaper publishers was launched at $600 million over 5 years. A doubling of the PLR budget to $30 million is reasonable.
While the PLR Program is administered through the Canada Council for the Arts, it was begun with a direct allocation from the Ministry of Canadian Culture and Identity. We recommend the PLR budget be considered discrete from the Canada Council, and raised through direct ministry allocation.
TWUC calls on all parties to support an immediate increase of the annual Public Lending Right Commission budget to a minimum of $30 million, and an ongoing annual increase to the budget in order to keep pace with cultural production and lending practices. These measures will help to ensure ongoing Canadian production for our libraries, and proper compensation for cultural workers. We want to see PLR increases in all parties’ cultural platforms.
Canada’s Public Lending Right (PLR) ensures compensation for authors when our work is collected in Canada’s public library systems. It exists as recognition of the great gift of library lending to Canada’s readers, and of the valuable contribution of authors in that lending. Funding for the Public Lending Right Commission is critical to individual writers and to the health of the sector.
Today’s Public Lending Right budget falls far short of compensating at a comparable level to when the program launched in 1986. The number of authors and titles eligible for PLR has quadrupled since that time, and the budget impact has simply not kept pace.
Authors have been forced to concede severe reductions in PLR payments and retirement of culturally significant works from the program.
Considering the volume of content covered by PLR (over 100,000 eligible titles and 20,000 authors), it is a very modest fund. Comparable impact funds for other sectors have long outpaced PLR. The Canada Book Fund is $39.1 million, the Canada Media Fund stands at $353 million, the Periodical Fund is now $95 million, while the journalism fund going primarily to newspaper publishers was launched at $600 million over 5 years. A doubling of the PLR budget to $30 million is reasonable.
While the PLR Program is administered through the Canada Council for the Arts, it was begun with a direct allocation from the Ministry of Canadian Culture and Identity. We recommend the PLR budget be considered discrete from the Canada Council, and raised through direct ministry allocation.
TWUC calls on all parties to support an immediate increase of the annual Public Lending Right Commission budget to a minimum of $30 million, and an ongoing annual increase to the budget in order to keep pace with cultural production and lending practices. These measures will help to ensure ongoing Canadian production for our libraries, and proper compensation for cultural workers. We want to see PLR increases in all parties’ cultural platforms.
Amend the Copyright Act Immediately
The average income for writers has dropped precipitously over the last two decades, due primarily to the effects of uncompensated educational copying. The writing and publishing sector has lost hundreds of millions of dollars to this copying. This is a loss that has held our sector from growing significantly despite increased profile for Canadian writers and books around the world. Healthy domestic markets are crucial for cultural economy development.
Canada’s authors would have been much better positioned to withstand the inflation crisis of the last few years had they been properly compensated for the copying of their work in the education sector over the preceding 12 years. According to rates set by the Copyright Board of Canada, well over $200 million is owed in arrears by the education sector for copying dating back to 2011 (before passage of 2012’s Copyright Modernization Act). Since 2012, neither the K-12 nor Post-Secondary sectors have meaningfully engaged with collective licensing for their copying, refusing licenses, and ignoring tariffs set at the Copyright Board.
Canada’s writers find ourselves in an absurdly unfair situation. The Supreme Court of Canada confirmed that the copying practices of the education sector are unfair under the law, but has also weakened authors’ ability to work collectively and enforce their rights through Copyright Board tariffs.
Desperately in need of income to grow our industry and reach global markets, authors have no access to the hundreds of millions of dollars owed to them, and must now spend more time and money on potential new legal challenges as directed by the court.
The education sector’s broad refusal to license the work they copy has been going on now for a dozen years, despite repeated rulings about the unfairness of their copying guidelines.
There remains a standing budget promise from the government to rectify this situation. Canada’s professional authors anxiously await implementation of the promised repair.
TWUC calls on all parties to immediately remedy this situation by supporting amendment of the Copyright Act to clarify that fair dealing does not apply as an exception for educational use when a reasonable licensing solution is available. Furthermore, we ask that the purpose of the Copyright Board be clarified and made explicit (in that tariffs set at the Board are mandatory).
The average income for writers has dropped precipitously over the last two decades, due primarily to the effects of uncompensated educational copying. The writing and publishing sector has lost hundreds of millions of dollars to this copying. This is a loss that has held our sector from growing significantly despite increased profile for Canadian writers and books around the world. Healthy domestic markets are crucial for cultural economy development.
Canada’s authors would have been much better positioned to withstand the inflation crisis of the last few years had they been properly compensated for the copying of their work in the education sector over the preceding 12 years. According to rates set by the Copyright Board of Canada, well over $200 million is owed in arrears by the education sector for copying dating back to 2011 (before passage of 2012’s Copyright Modernization Act). Since 2012, neither the K-12 nor Post-Secondary sectors have meaningfully engaged with collective licensing for their copying, refusing licenses, and ignoring tariffs set at the Copyright Board.
Canada’s writers find ourselves in an absurdly unfair situation. The Supreme Court of Canada confirmed that the copying practices of the education sector are unfair under the law, but has also weakened authors’ ability to work collectively and enforce their rights through Copyright Board tariffs.
Desperately in need of income to grow our industry and reach global markets, authors have no access to the hundreds of millions of dollars owed to them, and must now spend more time and money on potential new legal challenges as directed by the court.
The education sector’s broad refusal to license the work they copy has been going on now for a dozen years, despite repeated rulings about the unfairness of their copying guidelines.
There remains a standing budget promise from the government to rectify this situation. Canada’s professional authors anxiously await implementation of the promised repair.
TWUC calls on all parties to immediately remedy this situation by supporting amendment of the Copyright Act to clarify that fair dealing does not apply as an exception for educational use when a reasonable licensing solution is available. Furthermore, we ask that the purpose of the Copyright Board be clarified and made explicit (in that tariffs set at the Board are mandatory).
Regulate the Development of New Technologies
The world has now seen how the super wealthy companies developing artificial intelligence treat the labour and property of creative professionals. Canada’s authors continue to find our work in pirated datasets that are being used for AI training. Our work is taken without permission, and without payment. This is an intolerable situation.
A rights licensing market for AI development is just beginning to take shape, but it will depend on clear rules and guardrails. To date, technology companies leading this development work are taking a snatch and grab approach to the intellectual property they need for training purposes.
TWUC calls on all parties to recognize an author’s right to determine industrial uses for their labour and creative work. Support strong legislation and regulation that ensures creative work cannot be used without permission and/or compensation in the development of new technologies.
The world has now seen how the super wealthy companies developing artificial intelligence treat the labour and property of creative professionals. Canada’s authors continue to find our work in pirated datasets that are being used for AI training. Our work is taken without permission, and without payment. This is an intolerable situation.
A rights licensing market for AI development is just beginning to take shape, but it will depend on clear rules and guardrails. To date, technology companies leading this development work are taking a snatch and grab approach to the intellectual property they need for training purposes.
TWUC calls on all parties to recognize an author’s right to determine industrial uses for their labour and creative work. Support strong legislation and regulation that ensures creative work cannot be used without permission and/or compensation in the development of new technologies.
Stronger Together
TWUC’s advocacy is most effective as the collective voice of Canada’s professional authors. We are stronger together. If you are not already a member of TWUC and are working as a writer, consider joining the Union. If you wish to support TWUC’s advocacy outside of membership, consider donating to the Union.
TWUC’s advocacy is most effective as the collective voice of Canada’s professional authors. We are stronger together. If you are not already a member of TWUC and are working as a writer, consider joining the Union. If you wish to support TWUC’s advocacy outside of membership, consider donating to the Union.
