1) Legislative review for the application of cultural policy in the digital environment. As in most countries, the Canadian legislative framework does not apply to online programming services (Netflix, Spotify, etc.), in large part foreign-owned, or cellular phone or Internet service providers. The CDCE is actively involved in reviewing broadcasting, telecommunications and copyright legislation. The review of these laws is the CDCE’s main priority at this time and undoubtedly for the coming years. Here is a summary of reasons that this review of laws is so crucial: Online programming services are not subject to requirements of discoverability and funding local and national content, which impedes the reach of local cultures, in addition to maintaining a system that is unfair to businesses that are bound by the regulatory framework. These programming businesses do not share information with the government, even when official requests are made. We do not have any information about Canadians accessing and being exposed to a variety of content. Even though traditional television content continues to play an important role in the lives of Canadians, these services are continuously losing viewers. This is leading to a decrease in income for broadcasting companies, which are the only ones that have to contribute to the Canadian content support fund. Consequently, the fund’s resources are being depleted. That is why Canadian Heritage increased its contribution to the Canada Media Fund in 2017. In radio, the commercial radio business has experienced a drop in revenues since 2014. Regular contributions from broadcasters to the music production fund are also down. Revenue losses in the music industry are colossal due to the drastic change in the way people consume music. Physical and digital album sales are in constant decline and streaming is continually increasing. The financial repercussions for the whole sector are dismal. These reductions in financial resources in the audiovisual and music sectors, combined with the constant decrease in conventional media advertising revenues, negatively impact the diversity of cultural expressions. For example, in the audiovisual field, fiction television shows, the genre at the core of the cultural expression, are the first to experience the lack of available resources. In the music sector, revenue losses are also resulting in a reduction in the number of projects that can be supported or the resources available to promote it. Opportunities in term of discoverability and funding are not the same for English- and French-speaking markets in Canada. Francophone products are not as easily exported in the global market and have a smaller funding base. The models established in the digital era are leading to the impoverishment of many performers, creators and cultural professionals. The median income of performers is $23,100, 45% less than that of Canadian workers. The addition of 40 exceptions to the Copyright Act in 2012 and its inability to adapt to technological realities have considerably weakened the revenues of creators and rights holders, which affects the creation of new work. Telecommunications service providers (Internet and mobile) benefit from access to cultural content online: video and audio account for the lion’s share of the time that Canadians spend online, for a combined total of 72%. Their revenues are increasing and their profit margins were 38.1% in 2017, but they do not contribute a cent to funding the cultural content. 2) Follow-up on trade negotiations to exclude culture from the trade agreements’ provisions Trade negotiations now include commitments concerning digital trade where the cultural sector must be preserved, at risk of not adopting new legislation to protect and promote our culture. Therefore, it is critical that culture remains excluded from trade negotiations, including digital commerce, through a global cultural exemption without the possibility of reprisals. WTO negotiations related to electronic commerce will be particularly closely monitored by the CDCE. 3) Develop artificial intelligence that contributes positively to the diversity of cultural expressions Reflections on the ethical dimension related to the development of artificial intelligence have been multiplying for a few years, and rightly so. Technical developments in artificial intelligence are numerous and quick; they are generating an increasing number of applications in nearly all activity sectors, public investments are very significant in several countries and often complement even larger private investments. While several applications have a formidable potential to improve general living conditions, others could contradict certain laws or other legal instruments. The development of these technologies is not formally supervised and these reflections are increasing to attempt to remedy this complacency. Still today, the majority of the reflections ignore the challenges facing the cultural sector. However, the applications of AI in culture are numerous: recommendation algorithms, applications to help create works (composition, writing, special effects, digital characters), data enhancement, etc. Cultural organizations need to better understand and anticipate the impacts and opportunities of these developments on the diversity of cultural expressions and the opportunities that they present, especially the following aspects: - Reviewing laws to take technological advances into account - Identifying cultural content with metadata - Promoting cultural content - Obtaining training, expertise and equipment - Developing grant programs - Creating new partnerships to promote data exploitation - Intellectual property issues related to AI creation - Changing jobs and conditions in the cultural sector