In talking to Canadian screenwriters for television and film, it gradually becomes apparent that they are an idealistic bunch. At least, the pain and frustration they feel over the state of the Canadian industry, for the most part, has little to do with the fact that they make only a fraction of what their American counterparts make. No, it is more that they feel Canadian stories are not being told. As a result, some happily, others grimly, have made the land of sunshine and smog, l.a., their permanent homes. Others keep the airlines in business going back and forth, while still others choose to remain loyally snowbound.

‘Every time a group of writers gets together, the subject of whether we should move to Los Angeles comes up,’ says Vancouver-based writer Hart Hanson (Traders, North of 60). ‘A lot of writers are at least thinking about getting u.s. representation.’

Most feel that the landscape for Canadian writers who want to tell Canadian stories is becoming increasingly sparse. With cuts to cbc, Telefilm Canada and other government sources, fewer Canadian projects are getting made. When they are, the turnaround time – because of bureaucracy and lack of funds – often is reduced to a snail’s pace.

In television, with less government funding and global competition, even so-called Canadian projects often need to coproduce with an American or other partner, the result being a product whose Canadian content is watered down.

Additionally, many writers complain that large production companies, many of which have moved their development offices to l.a., have left Canadian-based writers with nowhere to pitch their ideas.

On the feature film side, the vision is even grimmer. Even if a Canadian producer can get the funding together, with American distributors still controlling Canadian screens, homegrown features are lucky to have a week in a theater and are otherwise relegated to film festivals. Despite much lobbying in the past 10 years by Canadian players for quotas or levies, the situation remains the same.

Suzette Couture, one of Canada’s most successful writers, has been straddling the border for several years now. Though Toronto-based, more and more she is working out of Los Angeles. With La Florida, Million Dollar Babies, Conspiracy of Silence and Love and Hate to her credit, she has earned her stripes on both sides of the border.

‘I was luckier than most writers,’ she says. ‘I wrote Love and Hate and it was the first Canadian miniseries aired in primetime in the u.s. So the transition for me was easy. Agents (in the u.s.) then wanted me. So I didn’t have to make cold calls like some writers. Until Love and Hate aired in the u.s., I wasn’t getting the attention I get here now. And before I got my u.s. agent, I felt my Canadian credits meant nothing.’

With her company Sarrazin/ Couture Productions, Couture is currently in development with the mow Wild Geese for Baton Broadcasting and Five Smooth Stones, a miniseries for abc. She says she would work here more if she could.

‘cbc production is down because of the cutbacks, even though that wasn’t supposed to happen. Ten years ago there was more cbc work and then there were some independent productions to work on. Some writers were able to ride that wave, but now they are out of work and suffering. We have little Canadian content here in long-form or mows. I get a lot of writers calling me to recommend l.a. agents. I’m hearing this idea that big (Canadian) companies feel the only good Canadian writers are based in l.a.’

Ivan Fecan, Baton Broadcasting coo, played a large part in developing Canadian projects like Love and Hate and Journey Into Darkness: The Bruce Curtis Story while at cbc.

‘I think there are more projects for writers today, but clearly government cutbacks have affected it,’ he says. ‘Networks like Baton are developing tons of things. The difference is that in the States, there’s just so much more volume. There, in television, there is sort of a farm team system. A writer may pitch a script, then get hired as a staff writer, then as a story editor, then as head writer/producer. It gives writers the experience they need and the mentors they need. On the down side, the system processes out some individuality. French Canada has more of a system of farm teams like the States.’

Michelle Allen is the screenwriter on one of Quebec’s most ambitious tv series in the new season, the nine-hour Sovimage drama Lobby. The series dramatizes a wide range of public-interest issues from the perspective of Alex, the central character, a 33-year-old professional lobbyist, lawyer and mother of two. Allen wrote the bible and says she received great support from director Jean-Claude Lord and series consultants and journalists Normand Lester, Pierre Nadeau and Jean-Claude Le Floch.

Allen’s background is in theater. She trained as an actress at Conservatoire d’art dramatique. She has written for the stage, and in tv has a growing list of teleroman credits including L’Or et le papier, cowritten with Guy Fournier and Wayne Grigsby, Tandem, D’Amour et d’amitie and Graffiti.

Allen says tv is an expensive medium and that makes for lots of competition among writers. ‘We (Quebec) are big consumers of tv series. I think the quality of our shows is surprisingly good, in both directing and writing terms. Often dramatic television writing here is quite authentic, audacious.’

‘As a tv screenwriter you aren’t necessarily on the front line. Projects are presented to the networks by (producers) and maybe as a screenwriter you have a chance, or not, to work on a project which interests a broadcaster.’

One English writer who has stayed in Canada and has thrived is Vancouver-based Dennis Foon, whose credits include the cbc movie Little Criminals, African Skies, The Odyssey and Black Stallion.

‘In the tv and film industry in Canada, you are able to keep the truth and honesty that makes great work and hits a universal chord,’ he says. ‘Little Criminals wouldn’t have been made without cbc. They were willing to be uncompromising and courageous. That kind of integrity is intrinsic to a public broadcaster. In Canada, that integrity is more likely kept intact.’

Keith Ross Leckie (The Arrow, Journey Into Darkness, Lost in the Barrens), who estimates that this year 80% of his income will come from south of the border, agrees. He approached a pbs executive for the possible sale of Where the Spirit Lives, a cbc production about Native youngsters taken from their families and mistreated at a parochial school.

Says Leckie: ‘They liked the script but said their audience wasn’t interested in Native issues so they wanted to make it a regular orphanage; they said they couldn’t show any abuse or even imply abuse of children, so that would have to come out; and they said it couldn’t be negative toward a religious organization.’

In another approach to a u.s. network, Leckie presented his concept for a Guy Paul Morin story. ‘They said, `This guy went to trial twice? That wouldn’t happen here, that would just confuse viewers.’ ‘

However, Leckie, like many Canadian writers, sees the advantages of working on American projects such as a screenwriter getting paid right away for writing a script, whether it ends up getting produced or not. In Canada, a small fee is paid up front and then the remainder when and if it is produced.

‘Things happen faster there. You make much more money and there is a lot less bureaucracy. With a good strong agent in l.a., I can get all the work I want. In l.a., the money is all up front.’

But while ‘there is about 10 times the opportunity in the States and buckets of money,’ says Hanson, ‘you get slotted really quickly down there: you’re a sitcom writer or an mow writer or whatever.’

‘In the States,’ continues Leckie, ‘projects go through more quickly and the quality of work is more surface. In Canada, you’ll be put through a lot more drafts. Therefore, the projects have more depth. It’s more sophisticated drama. In the States they tend to flatten a script.’

Foon sees it this way: ‘Writers do win the jackpot in the States. In Canada, if you hit gold you only hit the dollar slot machine. To go south would be to make five or 10 times what I’m making now. But what would I have to do in return? In terms of giving up independence and integrity? Everything gets subordinated to the deal.’

tv writers also lack power in Canada. In the States, writers are the creative producers, and as such, many say, they get to call the shots – something only an elite few can do in Canada.

‘Here, the power lies with whoever puts the deal together,’ says Hanson. ‘Therethe high-profile shows, successful shows, are run by writers.’

With fewer regional tv programs, such as the long-running Beachcombers – where hundreds of Canadian writers cut their teeth – the scene for inexperienced screenwriters appears even more grim.

‘I know a lot of good writers who are unemployed,’ says Hanson. ‘There is a sense that things are dwindling here. For new writers it’s really hard to break in. And we’re also experiencing a brain drain of talent.’

Some hope that with more specialty channels coming in, Cancon regulation will trigger more work for writers. Those broadcasters, of course, will need other buyers, bringing into question whether they will really be looking for Canadian stories.

‘Writers talk about this all the time,’ says Hanson. ‘They wonder where they can go to pitch stories, whether they should get u.s. representation. I want to stay here, but it’s something you reconsider about every two months.’

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The Writers Guild of Canada supplies these figures on the current remuneration of writers.

Up front the writer gets a script fee which, for a feature, is $36,385; for an mow, is $27,500; for a two-hour doc, $18,920; for a one-hour doc, 9,460; for a one-hour drama, $11,520 per episode and for a half-hour drama, $5,760 per episode.

If the project is produced, the writer receives a production fee (from wich the script fee is deducted), which is based on the per-episode budget. For a half-hour with a $500,000 budget, the writer gets $13,250 which includes the script fee. For a one-hour $1.5 million budgeted project, the writer receives $38,250. For a $3 million feature, the writer receives $70,750.

Production fees are considered an advance against royalties. If 4% of the gross exceeds the production fee, royalties kick in.

The aforementioned fees were minimum and the following ranges for fees were recorded in 1995: mows, $27,500 (script fee) to $100,000 (production fee); mini-series, $100,000 to $300,000; one-hour dramas, $11,500 to $40,000+; and features, $36,385 to $70,000.

Story editors receive minimum $1,500 to $2,000 per week, with the high end maxing out at $13,000 per week for an executive story editor.