There will be no Canadian Comedy Awards in 2016. This will come as a surprise to many people, most of whom didn’t know about the Canadian Comedy Awards (CCAs).

Last year was the 16th Annual festival and awards, which sometimes moved from city to city like its sister award the Junos, but often was held in Toronto. The “Canadian Comedy Awards” trademark holders had an agreement with The Canadian Comedy Foundation for Excellence to produce an awards ceremony under that name, but I guess that agreement expired in 2015. It seems weird that someone would own the rights to an award (or an award name) and not give out those awards themselves, but I’m not passing judgement on the events, only expressing surprise and confusion about how these things apparently work.

The Canadian Comedy Awards have been a great venue for the masses of emerging comedy in talent in Canada to be recognized and network. When I was working on The Carnegie Hall Show with The National Theatre of the World and we won for Best Improv Troupe in 2010, I had an amazing time seeing the likes of members of The Kids In The Hall, Seán Cullen and Tom Green rubbing elbows with then-emerging young comedy talent like Alana Johnson and Picnicface.

I’ve seen online lamenting from a lot of Canadian comedy players about the void that the lack of CCAs this year has left. Hopefully some new arrangement will be found in time for an event next year, whether it’s produced by the CCFE or another group willing to give back to the community of hard-working, hilariously creative women and men that make up the world-renowned Canadian comedy talent pool.