Ottawa, February 23, 2009 – Over 16,500 Canadian authors are sharing $9.9 million in Public Lending Right Commission payments for the public lending of their books by Canadian libraries during the past year. The PLR issues payments to writers, translators and illustrators every February. PLR payments are determined by verifying the holdings of a representative group of Canadian public libraries. The size of the payment increases with the number of libraries in which an author’s eligible titles are found. This year, authors received an average payment of $600 and the maximum payment per author was $2,800.

The distribution of payments by province is as follows:

Quebec $3,918,240.40

Ontario $2,999,724.60

British Columbia $1,269,769.80

Alberta $ 424,338.40

Canadians living abroad $ 326,697.00

Nova Scotia $ 253,472.20

Manitoba $ 186,278.60

Saskatchewan $ 182,661.60

New Brunswick $ 177,065.40

Newfoundland and Labrador $ 109,930.20

Prince Edward Island $ 37,367.60

Yukon Territory $ 8,458.60

Northwest Territories $ 5,216.80

Nunavut Territory $ 1,802.40

Total $9,901,023.60

Change in the PLR Program for Next Year’s Payments (February, 2010)

In June, 2008, the PLR Commission unanimously adopted a new payment scale to be implemented for the February, 2010, author payments. In short, the books registered with the PLR program will be divided into four categories, based on the number of years they were registered, and each category will be paid based on a certain percentage. For further information, please visit www.plr-dpp.ca.

Canada is one of 23 countries that have an active PLR program. While the world’s PLR programs are all administered differently, there are two common threads linking them all: the recognition of the right of authors to be compensated for the use of their works in libraries, and the understanding that PLR funds paid to authors are an investment in advancing that country’s literary expression. The PLR Commission operates under the administrative aegis of the Canada Council for the Arts. Funding for the PLR program comes from the federal government through the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Authors interested in receiving PLR payment need to register by May 1, 2009. For more information about how to register, please visit www.plr-dpp.ca.