An increased promotion of Canadian literature in schools was listed as one of the key points in a new cultural strategy announced by the Province of Ontario.

Eleanor McMahon, Ontario’s minister of tourism, culture, and sport, announced the strategy in Toronto on July 20. The strategy aims to increase both public participation in arts and culture, as well as the sector’s economic impact across the province. Ontario’s first-ever cultural strategy reflects the input received via a three-month public engagement process the ministry undertook last fall. Among the key areas the strategy will focus on are:

• support for increased use of work by Canadian authors in the school system;
• conservation of heritage buildings with energy efficiency improvements through Ontario’s Climate Change Action Plan;
• enhancement of technical and business skills training for culture sector workers;
• new financial support for cultural activities in indigenous communities.

With the province’s new strategy in place, McMahon told Quill & Quire, the ministry will now focus on its execution. For the book trade, that means figuring out what a financial investment in CanLit education will look like. “There are prominent stakeholders we’ll need to talk to, like the Writers’ Union, about what kind of investment should be made,” she says, “and obviously we’re going to want to talk to our colleagues in education.” She further stressed that the province planned to invest in Canadian publishers of all sizes: “We’re not picking. We’re investing in CanLit. Full stop.”

McMahon added that she would also be examining the issue of fair dealing as it pertains to educational institutions distributing copyrighted work to students without author compensation. “I will be speaking to my federal counterpart about that to see what the federal government’s intentions are in regards to copyright because I have heard from authors that [fair dealing] was harmful, and that they desperately want it changed. I have heard that message loud and clear.”

Ontario’s new culture strategy will be implemented over the next five years, with many short-term actions expected in the next one to two years.