{"id":16456,"date":"2014-06-28T06:00:16","date_gmt":"2014-06-28T10:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=16456"},"modified":"2014-06-27T12:00:22","modified_gmt":"2014-06-27T16:00:22","slug":"international-musicians-rejoice-canada-drops-tour-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2014\/06\/28\/international-musicians-rejoice-canada-drops-tour-tax\/","title":{"rendered":"International musicians rejoice: Canada drops “tour tax”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Enjoying<\/a>

Mariachi band at Rideau Hall’s 2011 summer concert series. Photo: Lucy Martin<\/p><\/div>\n

Here’s a heads up for musicians impacted by a hefty fees imposed on small gigs in Canada.<\/p>\n

An unpopular requirement, dubbed the “tour tax,” was recently eliminated as part of the government’s overhaul of the temporary foreign worker program.<\/p>\n

According to coverage from the Canadian Press<\/a>, musician and New Democratic Party MP, Andrew Cash, thought the fee was mistaken from the get-go:<\/p>\n

“They corrected something incredibly dumb that they shouldn’t have implemented in the first place,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The music sector wasn’t abusing the temporary foreign worker program, and there was no consultation in advance of the government’s decision,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There was no one asking for it, in fact.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To re-cap, last summer Canada imposed a work permit requirement with higher fees for international musicians wishing to play at smaller venues in Canada. (For some reason, larger venues were exempt.)<\/p>\n

Here’s how that was reported on CBC at the time<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Before these changes were made, a one-time fee was required of $150 for each member of the band and was capped at $450. These fees are normally subsidized by venues across Canada as a shared cost and paid as an incentive to bring bands north of the border. Now live music venues must pay the inflated rate of $275 per artist as well as their entourage (manager, roadie, wardrobe, etc.) without a cap, as well as pay an extra $150 for each band member and crew member’s work permit.<\/p>\n

\u00a0If the applications for the work permits are declined, the fees are non-refundable and would be required once again for another application.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The requirement generated at least one\u00a0petition asking it be repealed<\/a>. there were also complaints the\u00a0measure\u00a0imposed excessive costs<\/a>\u00a0for smaller venues, while shrinking the musical menu for Canadian audiences.<\/p>\n

This strikes me as a good development. Close cross border ties have long been a plus in this region and music is one of the best ways for people to bond and connect.<\/p>\n

So, area musicians, were you affected by that rule? Will any of you be playing in Canada more often now?<\/p>\n

Just be careful your instruments don’t contain ivory, that’s become\u00a0a\u00a0sensitive issue<\/a>\u00a0for re-entry into the U.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s a heads up for musicians impacted by a hefty fees imposed on small gigs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4863,880,7020,64,4868],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16456"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16456"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16544,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16456\/revisions\/16544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}