Alarmed at recent rulings by the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, actors and other performers are fighting to protect their status as independent contractors. Senator Tommy Banks, in the artists’ corner, met Oct. 9 in Ottawa with representatives from across the entertainment industry to discuss the problem of Employment Insurance, performing artists and Canadian tax law.

Recent CCRA rulings – against the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, for one – have tended to redefine performing artists as employees, and actors steadily employed by TV productions could be next on the list. Producers and performers alike say the changes are unfair because, as employees, performers pay into the Employment Insurance program but cannot collect benefits.

‘There’s no quid pro quo,’ says ACTRA national executive director Stephen Waddell, charging that his members are ‘under attack’ from the CCRA. ‘You can’t qualify for Employment Insurance because of the infrequency of work…If you take away the independent contractor status of performers there’s no way we can survive.’

Lobbying to preserve contractor status will be among ACTRA’s top priorities in 2003, he adds. Most rulings have so far been applied to those working full-time at symphonies, dance or theatre companies.

‘We’re round pegs that don’t fit in the nice, neat, square holes of the CCRA,’ says Sen. Banks who, before his second career in politics, earned much acclaim as a musician, conductor and broadcaster. He is still remembered best by many Canadians for his 15-year gig hosting The Tommy Banks Show, a ’70s-era variety program on CBC. ‘But trying to get that idea in the mechanics of tax collection, that the performing arts don’t fit the existing programs, is a greatly difficult thing which I’m going to try to address.’

Present at the Oct. 9 meeting were representatives from ACTRA, lobby group the Canadian Conference of the Arts, French-language performers guild Union des Artistes, Toronto theatre giant Mirvish Productions and the Stratford Festival, among others.

‘They all had the exact same concerns and have been trying to do rather a lot about it,’ says Banks.

Ivan Habel, Stratford’s director of planning and education, agrees that recasting actors as employees would be ‘extremely detrimental’ to Canadian show business. ‘It’s a fundamental shift in how artists are treated in organizations and will be a fundamental shift in their earning abilities,’ he says. ‘This is not good for the industry, it’s not good for the performers and it’s not good for the companies.’

The Canadian Conference of the Arts also wants performers to be formally recognized as contractors and is lobbying the CCRA, the Ministry of Canadian Heritage and the Human Resources Development Council. The Heritage ministry appears to be listening and has commissioned accounting firm Ernst & Young to study the possible impact of employee status on the industry.

Neither the CCRA nor the Ministry of Finance returned calls asking for comment.