Someday soon, the jokesters say, Los Angeles will be one of the largest Canadian cities. The Writers Guild of Canada doesn’t see much humor in that.

‘Our primary concern,’ says Maureen Parker, the wgc’s director of industrial relations, ‘is that Canadian screenwriters are being forced to move to l.a. to be hired to work on Canadian productions.

‘Our talent pool is shifting, and part of the reason is the Cancon requirements. The six out of 10 cavco model doesn’t work for us.’

Under cavco regulations, a Canadian director and a Canadian writer are each worth two points. From the wgc’s perspective, producers would rather hire a Canadian director and maintain creative control, hiring an expatriate Canadian with an l.a. address to write.

‘This amounts to a betrayal among Canadian screenwriters, particularly those who chose to stay and build the industry here, building companies like Alliance and Atlantis. Certainly those companies hire Canadian writers, but they’re establishing a trend in hiring writers out of their l.a. offices.’

In hopes of raising the profile of its own, and to celebrate the achievements of Canadian writers, the wgc is launching in April 1997 what it hopes will become an annual awards event. The WGC Top Ten will recognize the best in Canadian writing across the spectrum and, yes, l.a.-based Canadians are eligible.

‘It’s a way of reminding people that the foundation of the business is a good story,’ says Parker. ‘We see it as a way of profiling our members and combatting the idea that you need an l.a. writer.’

Budget restraints mean the guild will be starting small for the first time out and the organizers will be seeking sponsorship. ‘Hopefully it will grow as the guild grows,’ says Parker. ‘It will be enough for us if we get some key industry people and the writers themselves out.’

The new year will also mean more negotiations for the guild. The wgc’s contract with cbc expired in 1992 and there are still outstanding issues from the most recent rounds of talks, including a compensation structure for children’s programming. More talks are scheduled for January and Parker’s hoping to wring an agreement out of those meetings.

The Independent Production Agreement expires in June, and the wgc will be sitting down with the cftpa and the apftq looking for, among other items, an increased emphasis on royalty payments.

‘We did an overhaul of the ipa the last time around,’ says Parker, ‘but the rapidly changing nature of the industry means that our concerns are increasingly complicated.’

On the advocacy front, the guild is fighting a number of ongoing battles on behalf of its membership, including lobbying Canadian Heritage to structure Cancon rules to necessitate the use of an indigenous writer. ‘We believe that if there isn’t a Canadian writer attached, it’s not Canadian,’ says Parker. ‘Unless it’s a Canadian story, it’s a service production and we’re not building our own industry.’

The guild is also pushing Telefilm Canada for more in the way of development money and it has banded with the Directors Guild of Canada, actra and sardec (Societe des auteurs, recherchistes, documentalistes et compositeurs) to lobby the new Canada Television and Cable Production Fund for a seat on the board.

‘Development is where you need to be spending money in order to have a truly worthwhile indigenous product. Otherwise you’re transferring the financial burden onto writers or you’re transferring the decision-making process to l.a.,’ says Parker. ‘If it comes down to money for production or money for development, producers will take the development money. They know writers will stay at home and write spec scripts.’