Thank you, Madam Chair.

Distinguished members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, good afternoon.

I am Joëlle Préfontaine, Artistic Director and Co-General Manager of the only professional francophone theatre company in Edmonton, UniThéâtre. I have held this position for 16 months, but I am very familiar with the company, since I worked there for 10 years as an actress, instructor and stage director.

UniThéâtre was created in 1992. It resulted from a merger of two theatre companies: Théâtre français d'Edmonton, founded in 1967, and Boîte à Popicos, created in 1978.

I am from the Franco-Albertan community of Legal, located in north Edmonton. I lived below the poverty line as a bilingual artist for 15 years, while I worked full time, putting in over 40 hours a week. I had to get into debt to survive. I am sharing that information with you because I know that many artists will see themselves in my story.

Despite everything, arts are doing well in Alberta. A growing number of artists are choosing to set up in Edmonton to practice their art. I could attend two shows a week without managing to see everything that is happening in my sector.

So it is a privilege for me to be joining you today. I thank you for giving me this opportunity to meet with you.

I will more specifically focus on four themes: increasing the budget of Canada Council for the Arts, or CCA; communications with the CCA; representation of the Canadian francophonie on CCA juries; and the future of the CCA's funding.

After the funding of the Canada Council for the Arts stagnated for a few years, the Government of Canada announced in 2016-2017 that it was committing to double the CCA's budget by 2021. I need not to tell you that we liked that news.

The capping of the CCA budget before the 2016-2017 announcement hindered the development of the arts community. The CCA did not have means to support the proposals of new artists or established artists for new projects. During that time, the development of Alberta's artistic organizations such as UniThéâtre was limited by the lack of resources available to them. Despite those conditions, my company has remained in touch with its community.

However, even with the planned increase of the CCA's budget, the organization will still not be able to meet the real needs of the arts community. The announcement of new investments in the Canada Council for the Arts came with another piece of news, which was the restructuring of its programs. So the CCA has reduced the number of its programs. Previously, there were some 150 of them, and then the organization ended up with six so-called flexible and more open programs. It is true that it is easier to navigate in CCA's new operating model. However, some aspects of the implementation are lacking.

Before the new model was implemented, UniThéâtre would contact a specific CCA officer capable of directing it toward programs that would be likely to support its projects. As he was our main interlocutor at the CCA, the officer had a view of all facets of our activities. He understood what was involved in managing a francophone theatre company in a minority setting.

A company like UniThéâtre has a double mandate, which is both artistic and community-based. We exist to support and present the work of French speaking artists, but we are also promoters of French language and culture. I add that I relearned French through my experiences in the theatre. We are helping shape the Franco-Albertan identity.

So our officer understood the roles we play. Now, if UniThéâtre wants to use more than one CCA program, it must contact more than one officer. That is a considerable change. It means that every officer has only a partial vision of who we are and what we do. We have to repeatedly introduce ourselves to every one of them, in the hope that they will learn not only to know us, but to understand us. That lack of familiarity harms the fluidity of our relationship with the CCA.

In addition to the relationship UniThéâtre has with the CCA as a client, the organization sometimes invites me to be part of its peer juries to assess certain funding requests submitted to it. That other point of contact with the CCA is important to me and to UniThéâtre. Every one of those experiences is learning in itself. Finding out what my peers are doing and how they are doing it is essential to my artistic development. That said, I know that, when I accept those invitations, I will be the only Franco-Canadian to participate in the assessments. So I will have to represent nine provinces and three territories.

Despite the context sheets proposed by the CCA, the other members of the jury, mainly from Quebec, knew relatively little about artists from the Canadian francophonie, the challenges associated with creating in a minority language context and the gaps between the provinces and territories in terms of public funding for the arts. They don't know that there is only one vocational theatre program in French at the post-secondary level in western Canada. This is a large task I am proud to carry out, but I think it would be important to include at least one other artist from the Canadian francophonie on francophone juries, in order to lighten the burden of the person who must represent the entire country instead of one province in particular.

As the general co-director of UniThéâtre, I pay special attention to current events that could affect my company. For example, the federal election next October is on the horizon. Funding for arts and culture is rarely mentioned during an election campaign, but, since I have your attention, I am putting the following request to the political parties represented on this committee: make the commitment to maintain the announced increase to the Canada Council for the Arts budget, to consolidate it and even to enhance it after 2021. That money will not be wasted. The funding provided to a theatre company like mine is used to cover the cost of hiring companies and artists we use in our projects. It allows us to sell our tickets at affordable prices, so that as many people as possible can attend our productions. That way, we generate economic benefits for our city, our province and our country. In addition, we contribute to the quality of life of our fellow citizens. Those are accomplishments UniThéâtre is proud of.

I want you to know that I am forever grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts for its support to my personal and artistic journey, as well as to that of UniThéâtre. The funding we receive helps us live our dreams, create opportunities to share stories with our audience, and grow. The arts bring us together, help us learn and be heard.

Thank you for your attention.