Question Period Note: Canada Book Fund

The Canada Book Fund is the Government's principal measure in support of Canadian books. It aims to ensure access to a diverse range of Canadian-authored books in Canada and around the world. The 2022-23 Grants and Contributions envelope for the Canada Book Fund, as allocated in the Main Estimates, is $61 million.

• The Canada Book Fund ensures that readers have access to a diverse range of Canadian-authored books in Canada and abroad by supporting over 300 Canadian book publishers and industry organizations each year.
• Canadian booksellers need our help in the face of rising costs and increased foreign competition, which is why Budget 2021 provided $30 million in funding over two years to help them increase their online sales of Canadian books and help the Canadian book industry.
• Canadians with print disabilities deserve equal access to Canadian-authored books, which is why the Canada Book Fund provides funding to Canadian book publishers and industry organizations to support the sustainable production and distribution of accessible digital books.

• The Canada Book Fund (CBF) is the Government's principal measure in support of Canadian books. It aims to ensure access to a diverse range of Canadian-authored books in Canada and around the world.
• The CBF provides annual funding of approximately $36.6 million through two streams: Support for Publishers (SFP) and Support for Organizations (SFO). SFP ($31 million) provides funding to Canadian-owned publishers for the production and marketing of Canadian-authored books. The SFP stream includes a budget envelope of $400,000 for internships and business planning. SFO ($5.6 million) provides funding to book industry organizations and associations for collective projects that strengthen industry infrastructure and develop the market for Canadian books.
• CBF program funding flows to approximately 300 publishing businesses and not-for-profit industry organizations in over 80 cities in all 10 provinces and in one territory (Nunavut).
• Each year, publishers supported by the program produce about 6,500 new Canadian-authored books, employ approximately 2,500 Canadians and generate $400 million in sales of Canadian authored books, which includes export sales of close to $120 million.
• The Government of Canada, through the 2021 mandate letter to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, committed to “support[ing] Canadian authors and book publishers by increasing funding for the Canada Book Fund, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Public Lending Right Program.”

Initiative on accessible digital books
• Budget 2019 announced an investment of $22.8 million over 5 years (2019-20 to 2023-24) to support the sustainable production and distribution of accessible digital books by Canadian independent publishers through the CBF. In 2022-23, the CBF will allocate $4 million as part of this initiative.

Creative Export Strategy
• The CBF received an additional $500,000 per year from 2018-19 to 2022-23 from the Creative Export Strategy to promote Canadian creators in foreign markets.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Canadian book publishing industry
• The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in financial pressures for Canadian publishers and other industry players, such as bookstores and distributors. The temporary closure of bookstores resulted in a significant reduction in book sales across the country for the 2020 Spring season, despite a surge in online sales. At the peak of the pandemic, the drop in bookstore sales reached 75 percent.
• Despite the many challenges brought on by the pandemic, following the reopening of booksellers, book sales have picked up. In fact, in the French-language book market, sales of books in independent bookstores in 2020 were up 18 percent from 2019 and up again 16 percent in 2021 from 2020. In the English-language book market, sales of books also picked up, with 2021 up 5 percent over 2020 and 2 percent above 2019. The Canadian book industry is also facing transportation cost challenges and is being impacted by disruptions in global supply chains.
• As part of Phase 1 of the Emergency Support Fund, the CBF provided emergency payments equivalent to 25 percent of amounts received in 2019-20 by recurring recipients of the program. The emergency payments totaled over $8.7 million. Additionally, $1 million from Phase 1 was transferred to Phase 2 in order to support new SFP applicants that would have been eligible for funding under the program’s regular budget.
• As part of Phase 2 of the Emergency Support Fund, a temporary funding component of the CBF, Support for Distribution (SFD), provided emergency financial relief to Canadian book distributors. With a budget of $10 million for 2020-21, SFD supported the Canadian book industry by helping Canadian book distributors maintain a robust supply chain and support the sale of, and ensure access to, a diverse range of Canadian books.
• The Recovery Fund for Arts, Culture, Heritage, and Sport Sectors will provide $11.4 million over two years (2021-22 and 2022-23) to support publishers and to increase promotion and access to Canadian books. In 2022-23, the CBF will allocate $5 million from the Recovery Fund for Arts, Culture, Heritage, and Sport Sectors to help the Canadian book industry build organizational resilience and pursue business innovation and transformation and advance equity, diversity and inclusion in the sector. The program’s formula-based funding will be augmented by $1 million from this allocation to incentivize the sale of books authored by members of underrepresented communities, while the remaining $4 million will be shared among the SFP and SFO components for projects targeting recovery objectives.

Supporting the increase of online sales
• An increasing number of consumers, Canadians and those abroad, are buying books online. In order to compete in a highly competitive environment dominated by e-commerce giants (e.g., Amazon), Canadian booksellers must review their business models, innovate and make strategic investments. Budget 2021 included $32.1 million over two years to support the efforts of the book industry and help increase sales of Canadian books online. The CBF will allocate $15 million of this funding to the first year of the initiative (2022-23).

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