in the fiscal year ending March 31, the Ontario Film Investment Program serviced 38 television and nine theatrical productions, 37 companies and, as ofip director Cornelia Coe says, ‘spent every last penny’ of its $15,946,910 allotment.

This fiscal year, ofip has made a dozen policy changes. Perhaps the most crucial amendment gives Canadian-owned distributors based in Ontario access to the cash rebate program for theatrical projects. Previously, distributors had to be Ontario-owned and based in-province, something ofip has been lobbying to change for three years.

Coe says the problem with the old policy was the limited number of distributors eligible: basically, Alliance Releasing and Norstar. ‘We told the Ministry we were going to have to do it this time.’

The new distributor rules are still in the works, but Coe hopes the change will make Malofilm, Astral, cfp and Cineplex eligible for the cash rebate program.

Many of the ofip policy changes are aimed at remedying a problem of heavy over-subscription: the annual corporate cap has been lowered from $2.75 million to $2.25 million; all rebate percentages have been lowered by 2%, with theatrical rebates lowered to match those for television; and the maximum rebate has been dropped from $1.5 million to $500,000 for all projects except tv series. The latter rebate change came about because projects, especially features aimed at video release, were regularly pulling in rebates in the $700,000 range. Previously, the standard rebate was around $500,000.

Two additional policy amendments add up to what Coe calls ‘more policing muscle.’

The list of producer-related credits has been expanded for more scrutiny and a requirement for fair market value licence fees and distribution advances has been settled at 10% of the production budget.

Coe says of the latter policy change, ‘Where licence fees and distribution advances are so inadequate, we have to question whether ofip should be subsidizing these fees.’ An example is a Canadian series with a negligible Canadian licence and a substantial u.s. licence fee. ‘We have to look at who is driving these projects,’ says Coe.

Other changes include a cap of either 90 episodes or five cycles per series, introduction of a primetime requirement except for pilots, a minimum program requirement for a half-hour in length, and exclusion of a project that has ‘time-buy’ financing but no trigger broadcaster. PC