THE CANADA BOOK FUND’S new COVID-19 emergency relief fund may be nominally directed at distributors, but its purpose is to support the entire publishing supply chain.
Julie Fairweather, director of book publishing policy and programs at Canadian Heritage, says CBF’s mandate is “to ensure access to Canadian authored books for readers in Canada and elsewhere.” Although it has historically done so through funding to publishers, lockdowns in the early months of the pandemic resulted in an industry cash-flow crisis, despite noted increases in retail online sales.