Montreal: Responding to a flurry of year-end press reports charging Telefilm Canada is short-changing the production community in b.c., executive director Francois Macerola says provinces who help themselves do better at the federal funding agency.

In a Dec. 20 letter sent to British Columbia Film president and ceo Wayne Sterloff, Macerola says, ‘We have come to believe there is a direct correlation between federal and regional provincial commitments.’ Macerola points out that when the Alberta Motion Picture Development Corporation was shut down demand on Telefilm decreased, not increased.

At the same time, he says, demand from Nova Scotia, and subsequently the agency’s commitments in that province, increased with the advent of the Nova Scotia fund and tax credit program. ‘We are now expecting a similar trend in News Brunswick as they have established significant provincial incentives.’

Macerola and Sterloff exchanged letters over the holidays, both providing different answers as to why b.c.’s share of Telefilm production funding dropped to 5% last year.

However, Macerola points out Telefilm’s investment in b.c. will double to 10% by the end of the current fiscal year, March 31.

‘Allow me to say right off the top that I was not pleased to see the decline in Telefilm’s numbers in b.c. last fiscal. However, I am equally displeased to note the decline in B.C. Film’s commitment to its own industry,’ he says.

B.C. Film’s investment has dropped from $5.1 million to $3.9 million over the past two years. Sterloff pegs the provincial grant for B.C. Film in ’96/97 at $4 million, dropping again in ’97/98 to $3 million.

Telefilm director of communications, public affairs and festivals Suzan Ayscough says the agency is working hard to change the situation.

Ayscough says 17% or $2.4 million of ctcpf Equity Investment Program funds have been spent in b.c. (with 12% of the national population) since last fall’s launch, adding:

‘Two, three or four b.c. (extended drama) projects are on the horizon.’

(cbc has no plans for b.c. this year, but Baton Broadcasting has promised a b.c. series if it wins a Vancouver licence.)

Sterloff says the low level of Telefilm and ctcpf spending in b.c. is not due to operations decisions, or staff at the agency, but is the result of an entrenched and ‘failing federal policy.’

‘The problem,’ says Sterloff, ‘is the federal government insists the gatekeepers be the very small number of millionaire industrialists in Quebec and Ontario (the national networks and a handful of Canadian distributors.)

‘Arthur Weinthalnever produces in British Columbia. He has established relationships in TorontoPhone Arthur, phone Phyllis Platt (at the cbc), phone Loren Mawhinney at CanWest Global, as I do all the time, and they’ll tell you there are no series coming to b.c.,’ says Sterloff.

‘The federal government has implemented policies at Telefilm that prevent a culture being supported in British Columbia.

‘The point I am trying to make, and again, I am not criticizing Telefilm, is that (Heritage Minister) Sheila Copps and her deputy and her adm keep saying no one in b.c. wants to work on their own stuff, they all want to work for Hollywood. But they are wrong. In ’96 there were 70 b.c. companies that delivered 79 hours of programming, up from 51 the previous year. And it is not supply side. It is totally demand-driven.’

(Much of this production is licensed by regional stations and specialty broadcasters like Vision tv and Discovery Canada.)

In his letter, Macerola says Telefilm Vancouver director John Taylor ‘receives the ongoing complaint that the province’s requirement of spending 75% of the production budget in b.c. makes it extremely difficult to stimulate those kinds of productions.’

Macerola says Telefilm is looking at ways to produce better regional results for its Revenue Sharing Program and has commissioned a study expected to address the lack of distribution infrastructure outside Montreal and Toronto.

In reference to an invitation from Macerola for a better partnership, Sterloff says it would make sense to have 2% of Telefilm’s French-track production allocation go to French-speaking producers in b.c. ‘Let’s have a b.c. voice into the French networks. We have French-language producers here who are selling products all through Europe.

Sterloff says he’s completely open to a meeting with Telefilm, but adds, ‘I don’t think it’s me and Francois. We’re operational. We have nothing to do with policy. We take our marching orders from boards of directors who take their orders from government.’

Copps will be in Vancouver mid-month.

With files from Ian Edwards in Vancouver.