Conference Board Recognizes Value of Culture

A Conference Board of Canada report entitled Valuing Culture: Measuring and Understanding Canada’s Creative Economy examines the culture sector as a cornerstone of the creative economy. The report was released in July, just prior to the federal government's recent funding cuts to the cultural industries. The CBC reported on the report today (reportedly).

Highlights from the report include:

Arts and culture industries play a vital role in attracting people, business, and investment, and in distinguishing Canada as a dynamic and exciting place to live and work.

The Conference Board estimates that the economic footprint of Canada’s culture sector was $84.6 billion in 2007, or 7.4 per cent of Canada’s total real GDP, including direct, indirect, and induced contributions. Culture sector employment exceeded 1.1 million jobs in 2007.

Technology is revolutionizing business models in the creative economy, altering the way culture is created and consumed. Consumers are becoming “prosumers” who actively create and customize content.

The “long tail” business model of many niche markets is altering how arts and culture industries sell their products and services.
The culture sector bridges geographical distances and creates greatly expanded social networks.