Easier access to money, increased training in new technologies and a permanent tax incentive program are key to the survival of Ontario’s film and television industry, says a new strategic study on the province’s cultural industries.

By the turn of the century, the Advisory Committee on a Cultural Industries Sectoral Strategy, which prepared the report, says the cultural sector will represent $2.4 billion in economic growth, create 6,000 new positions and generate another 14,000 jobs provided the provincial government acts on its recommendations

Established by Ontario Minister of Culture Tourism and Recreation Anne Swarbick, acciss has spent a year and $640,000 researching the economic needs, resources, and returns of Ontario’s film, television and commercial theater production, book and magazine publishing, and sound recording industries.

The report calls for government support in the areas of new legislation and government funding to help the province’s cultural industries fend off the influence of large u.s. firms and multinational media conglomerates.

acciss cochair Peter Grant, a communications lawyer with the Toronto law firm of McCarthy Tetrault, says the report ‘is not a study of arts policies so much as an assessment based on economic yardsticks.’

Alex Raffe, acciss cochair and ceo of the Ontario Film Development Corporation, says the most significant recommendations of the committee ‘deal with the creation of a technology center, educating ourselves and our work force to become more technologically literate because it is the future.’

The key issue to controlling the information highway, says Raffe, is ‘intellectual property: we have to find some way to track it, to hold it, to cost it, to get the money back to the firms, the creators, the artists.’

‘And there is an added finance issue – banks have a very hard time figuring out how this all comes together. Also, we’re always deficit financing, and with the continued pressure on resources of such places as Telefilm (Canada), these programs will become so very important.’

Raffe says the production industry must ‘educate banks and financial institutions that cultural industries are viable businesses with some real quality options.’

Also significant, she says, is the recommendation that the Ontario Film Investment Program become a permanent program. The report also suggests an investigation into how ofip would fit into the multimedia environment.

Film distribution is addressed by acciss with the recommendation that films made outside of American studios require distribution by Canadian distributors who support the production and distribution of films.

Raffe says she isn’t holding her breath on federal legislation in this area, but believes an Ontario-based initiative that would place distribution of films in Ontario exclusively in the hands of Ontario distributors could spread to other provinces.

‘I think there are serious problems with Ontario doing it by itself, because I can hear the retaliation from here,’ says Raffe. ‘But if Ontario’s plan works for the other provinces, which is what our recommendation is, we create a network of provincial legislation and, de facto, we have a federal or national reality.’

If the report’s recommendations are followed, the committee predicts an increase in Canadian film and television production revenue of $100 million – from $350 million to $450 million – and a 53% to 65% increase in distribution revenues of Canadian-owned, Ontario-based distributors, with total distribution revenues rising from $450 million to $600 million by 1999.

Due to the lack of accurate measurement systems for the cultural industries, acciss hired research firm DRI Canada to develop measurement methods for the film/television and other cultural sectors. In addition, acciss recommends the implementation of standard market performance statistics.

There is concern Bob Rae’s ndp government will not implement the committee’s recommendations before frustrated Ontario voters return to the polls in a year.

However, at a press conference to unveil the report late last month, Swarbick promised action and expressed confidence that at least some of the recommendations will be implemented over the next 12 months.

Other acciss recommendations concerning film and television production include:

– Lobbying the federal government to amend copyright legislation to include stronger deterrents for infringement on creators’ rights;

– The implementation of a distribution right that makes Canada a distinct territory (introduced in 1992 for the publishing industry);

– The creation of a new, arm’s-length ‘super’ agency that reflects the increased interaction of cultural industries due to multimedia products;

– The introduction of a refundable tax credit for cultural industries;

– New initiatives to encourage foreign film and television producers to shoot their productions in Ontario;

– The establishment of a labor relations framework for self-employed cultural sector workers in Ontario which would allow access to federal training programs and funds;

– The requirement that all Canadian-directed advertising involving provincial or federal governments and government agencies use Canadian producers; and,

– Putting pressure on the crtc to ensure that new delivery systems for cultural products be subject to existing Cancon measures. PC