YouTube calls for greater visibility and support for Canada's creator economy
Canadian storytelling has always been fueled by creativity and grit, but today’s generation of digital creators has taken that tradition to unprecedented heights. Operating as filmmakers, actors, producers and researchers, they are building the creative media companies of the future across the country, and commanding global audiences on day one.
These creators bring uniquely Canadian perspectives to the world while driving significant economic growth and employment at home. In 2025 alone, the YouTube creator ecosystem contributed over $2 billion CAD to Canada’s GDP and sustained more than 35,000 full-time equivalent jobs. They do all of this outside traditional distribution pipelines, powered by raw ambition, resilience, and vision.
Yet, despite this undeniable impact, new insights from Canada’s Creator Consultation 1 reveal a stark disconnect between their global success and the domestic support available to them here at home.
60% of Canadian creators report having no voice or representation in policymaking that directly determines their business viability, and 57% feel the broader Canadian creative sector does not treat their work as a legitimate, high-value creative industry. Only a small fraction report having adequate access to essential business financing, or enterprise-level business training to scale their ventures.
Supporting this community does not mean tearing down our country's rich cultural traditions; it means modernizing them. It means ensuring our tax systems, economic development programs, and public institutions recognize digital-first creators as the legitimate business owners they are.
What Canadian Creators Need to Thrive
We’ve taken the creator feedback from this consultation and outlined four critical pillars for growth and opportunity:
Good Policy is Built on Good Data: The first step towards an effective policy framework for the creator economy is for the government to recognize digital creators as a distinct professional category in official economic and labour data. We recommend introducing distinct NAICS tracking codes so the economic footprint of digital creators is formally measured by Statistics Canada.
Industry Representation and Funding: To level the playing field, we urge making the Canada Media Fund's (CMF) Digital Creators Envelope permanent, and increasing its allocation.
Access to Finance: As creators scale, they encounter persistent friction when approaching Canadian commercial lenders who routinely discount platform income. We are calling for the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) to launch a dedicated digital studio financing initiative that evaluates rolling digital platform cash flows.
Training & Skills: Solo creators frequently evolve into enterprise executives, hiring animators, editors, and researchers. We recommend that The Canadian Intellectual Property Office and BDC launch a National Creator Business & IP toolkit to cover contract negotiation, intellectual property assignment, fair commercial licensing, brand contract indemnification, and merchandising operations.
Introducing the YouTube Creator Level Up Program with the Independent Production Fund
To meet the needs of Canadian Creators, YouTube is funding a new Independent Production Fund (IPF) program to help Canadian creators take their business to the next stage of growth. The YouTube Creator Level Up program will be designed to cultivate business skills and offer grants to scale up the Canadian creator economy. One program stream will be dedicated to supporting emerging creators in Canada’s Northern Territories to help firmly establish their digital-first business. We’ll share more details in the coming months about how and where eligible creators can apply to participate.
Thank you to all of the creators who took the time to share their experiences and contribute to this vital research. We will continue collaborating with government partners and cultural leaders to champion the creator economy, break down barriers, and ensure Canada backs the entrepreneurs who are carrying our stories to the world.
