Industrial and cultural imperatives are being touted in government chambers by industry organizations as attempts to secure the future of the Ontario Film Development Corporation and the Ontario Film Investment Program continue.

From all accounts, the industrial message is weighing in at a significantly higher point on the scale than the cultural argument, meaning the future of ofip may be safer than that of the ofdc, say industry sources.

It is a tricky situation to make a cry for cultural support, considering Ontario Premier Mike Harris has vowed to chop his way through welfare and other subsidy programs in the name of lower taxes for all.

‘How do you make a case for continued funding at whatever level of the film and television sector in the context of cuts to Wheeltrans, welfare mothers and day care?’ asks ofdc head Alexandra Raffe. ‘There has been some criticism of the ofdc and of myself that I should have nailed myself to the barricades and said, `You are crazy. This is culture. You must restore the money immediately!’ Yet I still remain convinced that is not an appropriate tactic.’

Big chop

Amid these larger cuts, word is the Culture portfolio will be facing at least a $25 million chop when Finance Minister Ernie Eves delivers his mini-budget in November.

‘I don’t believe there is a hope in hell that we or any other entity – no matter how small or how large – in the Ontario government is going to get 100% of the money it got last year,’ says Raffe. ‘So the question for us was to work with this administration to figure out what was acceptable in terms of industrial assistance because there is some ideological concerns with it.’ Raffe is referring to the idea that the ofdc and ofip will get caught in a budget-cutting mud slide, rather than being specifically targeted.

Since Harris’ freeze on funding to the ofdc in mid-July, the Canadian Film and Television Production Association estimates at least six productions, with a total production value of $8 million, have either left the province or been halted.

Raffe points out some would have left anyway since the ofip allocation was nearly dry at the time of the freeze. ‘It’s been a major period of upheaval, and in the grand scheme of things we would have fully committed our funds by now anyway. We were going to run out six months through the (fiscal) year.’

The cftpa’s Ontario producers panel has been meeting with representatives of government to lobby for continued support. Owl Communications’ Annabel Slaight, who sits on the panel, doesn’t foresee the demise of the funding agency and cash rebate program, but she does spell out a less than sympathetic environment for cultural considerations.

‘The first thing that the panel understands is that we are living in a different economic reality than we were in the past and basically there needs to be pare-backs,’ says Slaight. ‘I can see the tremendous advantage that the tv industry has in making a case for itself. There are some tremendous financial success stories: it is an export industry, the considerable revenue that this industry is generating has multiplied many times over in the last 10 years. We’re making an actual contribution of 123% of direct revenue into the government coffers for every ofip dollar that is spent.’

Key to lobbying efforts is the job-creation message as well as underscoring the industry’s overall economic impact on the province. ‘On average, 52% of a budget is labor and 48% are goods and services that are for the most part spent on Ontario resources. Every dollar spent on production in Ontario is real money being spent here,’ says Raffe.

The best strategy, says cftpa president Elizabeth McDonald, who is leading the association’s lobby efforts, is to amalgamate industrial with cultural imperatives.

‘Ontario has played a critical role in developing strong Canadian productions and that’s an important element of how Canada identities itself. You get the cultural message at the same time that it creates jobs, so it meets two objectives,’ she says.

The cftpa has been reticent to put together overall figures assessing the impact of non-renewal of ofip and the ofdc funds, and is instead taking a project-by-project analysis to the government, pointing out where government subsidies fit into the picture and what the end result is.

‘The approach we’ve taken is more real. It looks at the impact on the total budget. (We) explain what a television series means, how many people it employs and what that means if the ofip money wasn’t there, and what jobs might move elsewhere,’ says McDonald.

Also, McDonald says she wants to keep her hopes up. ‘I don’t want to look at the black side yet. We are being listened to.’

Raffe wants to avoid hyperbole altogether, but she has put together a conservative estimate that $120 million to $150 million worth of production will be lost annually if the ofdc and ofip programs are not renewed. ‘You remove a big component and it will change the equation,’ she says. ‘It’s sufficient to say it will be a bloody great hole because every production that can move through a joint venture or as a coproduction will do so if it makes more sense to the bottom line.’

At the halfway point of the Toronto International Film Festival in mid-September, the Canadian Independent Film Caucus rallied around the cause by gathering filmmakers such as Harry Rasky, Atom Egoyan, Peter Wintonick, Patricia Rozema and Clement Virgo, journalist Rick Salutin, producer Bernard Zukerman and actors R.H. Thomson and Sarah Polley among others to speak to a wall of news cameras about the need for government subsidies for cultural initiatives.

Good advice

Said Rozema: ‘Take some advice from (President Herbert) Hoover who said if people will buy American movies they will buy American hats, phonographs and automobiles.’

Allan King, president of the Directors Guild of Canada, says although the dgc is not lobbying the government, it does support the cftpa’s efforts. ‘We believe that it is the producer’s role and we accept the strategy that has been taken (by the cftpa).’

In Ontario, the film and tv industry is estimated to be worth $2.7 billion (including broadcasting, distribution and all facets), of which the independent production sector accounts for about $500 million and creates 35,000 jobs annually.