The Department of Canadian Heritage has named nearly a dozen members to a newly created arts, culture and heritage consulting committee with the goal of supporting greener practices across those sectors.

On Aug. 12 minister Steven Guilbeault announced the committee (along with a secondary committee in the sports sector), revealing that a green shift across the board will help to encourage further change and engage society while addressing climate change issues.

Among the arts, culture and heritage committee members are CMF president Valerie Creighton; CMPA’s senior director of business affairs, Marcia Douglas; William F. White International’s VP of sustainability and stakeholder affairs, David Hardy; and Clara George, DGC’s chair of green committee. The full list of all committee members is available on the federal website.

Both committees are tasked with helping Canadian Heritage in developing and adopting environmental practices as part of Canada’s overall goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050. Last year the ministry held a series of environmental roundtables with sector stakeholders to assess the current situation and to plan next logical steps.

The news comes on the heels of IPCC’s latest report, in which officials called for rapid change as the global temperature continues to inch upwards. It also comes days before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to call a snap election.

“The sport and cultural sectors have shown they want to tackle climate change and are in a unique position to make a difference,” said Guilbeault in a release. “Not only can they reduce the environmental footprint of their activities, they also have the capacity to transform society as they inspire us though their stories and activities. I cannot wait to start working with the members of the new consulting committees and see how our government can help with their efforts.”

Canadian Heritage also confirmed it will incorporate environmental measures into the Recovery and Reopening Funds, which will contribute to organizations’ overall capacity and viability.

As part of the proposed 2021 federal budget, $5 billion has been allocated over the next seven years to Net Zero Accelerator. According to the government that funding will allow officials to provide up to $8 billion in support for projects that reduce domestic greenhouse gas emissions across the Canadian economy.

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