An Act respecting the Declaration on the Essential Role of Artists and Creative Expression in Canada

Bill S-208 (44-1) was a Senate Private Member's Bill from Senator Patricia Bovey, Canada's first art-historian senator, to adopt a Declaration on the Essential Role of Artists and Creative Expression in Canada. The Declaration would formally recognize the contribution of artists, writers, musicians, and cultural workers, about 158,000 Canadians whose median art income was only $20,300 in 2019, far below the overall labour-force median. The bill lost momentum when Senator Bovey retired in 2023; it was dropped from the Senate Order Paper that April and did not become law.