canada’s film and tv production industry is estimated to be worth $2.2 billion, according to 1995 statistics, with $1.5 billion generated by indigenous production and the rest coming from service deals. So says Tom Berry, chair of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association, who brought the news to the cftpa’s biannual conference held in Ottawa February 16 and 17.

Although stats were thrown around, and broadcasters and producers debated vested interests, public policy stole the spotlight at the gathering.

Amid the recent scuffle between the cmpda and the crtc, the nebulous future of regulating delivery systems and the recently released Juneau report, the call for protectionary measures and continued government support for the industry was made loud and clear at the conference as well as directly to government officials, including newly-appointed Heritage Minister Sheila Copps, during the day-long apftq/cftpa annual blitz on Parliament Hill (Feb. 15).

Richard Borchiver, president of Paragon Entertainment, attended a few of the dozen meetings in Ottawa including the one with Copps, and returned to Toronto assured of a ‘sympathetic government and a good climate in this country’ for producers. ‘(Copps) left us with the impression the government recognizes we have a growth industry worth supporting,’ he says.

apftq president Jacquelin Bouchard also sensed an air of promise after meeting with Copps. ‘She has an understanding of the fundamental questions of the industry, and the need to preserve systems that carry the cultural identity of Canada.’

‘Unrealism’

While panelist Victor Rabinovich, adm of cultural development at the Ministry of Heritage, assuaged some fears when he said Copps is interested in finding new sources of funding for the industry, his primary message was one of advice to the industry’s members. ‘The greatest threat now (to your industry) is a combination of a spirit of defeatism and a sense of unrealism,’ he warned, adding that `unrealism’ is interfering with some much-needed discussion about finding funding alternatives. ‘The public must continue to pour money in (to the industry) but heaven forbid that we should try to talk realistically about the sources of public financing. Heaven forbid anyone should even raise a possible tax. The telephone companies faced up to it and raised their monthly billing,’ he said.

In response to Rabinovichs’ appeal for optimism, Salter Street Films head and panelist Michael Donovan said he was reminded of the ending of the Monty Python film The Life of Brian which features the tongue-in-cheek song Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.

There was much talk of the success of the Canadian broadcasting system and of the crucial role the crtc has had in maintaining a healthy industry. Alliance ceo and panelist Robert Lantos asked his audience to consider the fact that ‘last week well over nine million people watched Canadian English language tv series and that doesn’t include news or public affairs or sports.’

In a cry for the continuation of regulation, Donovan pointed out there are currently 351 specialty channels in the u.s. and with emerging new delivery systems they should be ‘coming into Canada in five years.’

There was also much discussion, on-stage and off, of the pending cmpda battle and how it might affect the future of the crtc. If the government intervenes, said one producer, ‘it would be the end for the crtc and that would spell disaster.’ Atlantis ceo Michael MacMillan said, ‘It may be in vogue to criticise the crtc these days but we need them and we need them to be arm’s length.’

cafde president Dan Johnson, bemoaning the lack of regulation for theatrical distribution in Canada, received what was the first and by far the loudest round of applause. Johnson started with an anecdote (which he insisted had nothing to do with ampda head Jack Valenti) about why it is futile to wrestle a hog, and he ended his speech with a push for maintaining the crtc’s independence. ‘We have a unity of interest, an opportunity to have a policy in place that actually works.’

Moderator Kevin Tierney commented that although the crtc issue is critical, he had been warned at External Affairs of the trade wars that could ensue if the government stands behind the crtc. ‘There is a price to pay, we were told, whether it’s with chicken or eggs, there will be a price.’

apftq ceo Louise Baillargeon was passionate on the subject, saying it is ‘imperative the crtc maintain its autonomy. It’s too dangerous for government to take on regulation.’

Another reference to the crtc/ cmpda issue made by luncheon keynote speaker Industry Minister John Manley, was very slight. ‘I’m sure all of you want the government to tell Jack Valenti where to go,’ he said. Manley also said the government’s role is merely as a ‘safeguard. The survival of the industry will depend on the quality of content.’

A discussion on `culture vs. competition’ led with Lantos calling the title of the panel a dichotomy. ‘It leads to errors in judgement by very well-intentioned people like Juneau and Hernndorf who as a result of this kind of thinking draw lines that need to be drawn, but in the wrong place. Culture and competition have no built-in contradiction. Culture in fact is at its best when it is competitive.’

Lantos was in part responding to Pierre Juneau’s statement in Playback (February 12, 1996) whereby he defined North of 60 as an identifiably Canadian series but not Due South. ‘The notion that somehow one is more Canadian than the other has something to do with tone, taste, with perhaps a personal disposition of an individual, and if we start drawing lines like that I think we stand to threaten the accomplishments of the last two decades,’ said Lantos.

Max Films producer Roger Frappier spoke of a malaise, not only because he had heard little discussion of culture from his fellow panelists, but also because of the sorry state of the Canadian feature film industry and the ‘systematic’ decline ‘in the last five years’ of, in particular, the feature industry in Quebec. Fingers were pointed at coproduction treaties, American start-ups overseas and an ongoing syphoning of Telefilm funds over to tv production.

A session on covergence featured confessions that no one knew what the term really meant and included pitches from deliverers promising good intentions. On another level, CanWest Global president Kevin Shea made a point of addressing the realities of launching domestic product in an increasingly fragmented market. ‘More of interest for us as broadcasters is the emergence of distribution competition such as cable, dth, over-the-air technologies. A different order of fragmentation makes it even more difficult to mount a national campaign particularly for domestic programming.’

In a sobering session, research analyst Gordon Ashworth produced a report with data about viewers that one attendee found so depressing he asked, ‘Can we stop now?’ Ashworth reported that viewers want entertainment and not public affairs and news (saying Newsworld and Much Music are starting to lose their audiences), interest is rising in dth (‘possibly to avoid dealing with cable companies,’ he said), Canadians go to the cinema on average 5.6 times a year and 90% of them do not consciously decide to see a Canadian movie.

Ashworth also researched what he called ‘the public policy context’ and found Canadians are more interested in economic issues than anything else and that those most in favor of government support of the arts are unemployed or work part-time.