Montreal: sodec president Pierre Lampron says the current operating rules for film and television production financing as established in revised Canadian Television Fund guidelines are undermining the industry’s best long-term interests.

Lampron says the ctf system of early deadlines for automatic Licence Fee Program funding allocations is short-circuiting selective assistance decisions made by agencies like sodec and Telefilm Canada. He says the system places broadcasters in a situation where delivery of key elements of their primetime program schedules cannot be assured, and is transforming the development of film and tv production companies from the realm of strategic planning into a generalized lottery.

Lampron, who made the remarks in a wide-ranging speech March 25 at an Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television conference in Montreal, sponsored by entertainment law firm Heenan Blaikie and Royal Bank, is calling on national and provincial funding agencies as well as leaders in the production, broadcasting and distribution industries to seek out solutions to the ctf funding bottleneck.

While ctf decisions are based on financing and content criteria determined by other financing sources, including the national and provincial funding agencies, distributors and broadcasters, Lampron says the wide diversity of public and private strategic goals is being ignored. And ‘out of respect for the most fundamental rules of the marketplace,’ agencies such as sodec and Telefilm are obliged to tie ‘the quasi totality’ of their annual funding to fixed and arbitrary dates. And Lampron says this is done in a growing number of instances without a full and proper analysis of production projects.

Lampron says sodec receives hundreds of applications for production funding annually, however this year, as an effective consequence of the Equity Investment Program/lfp Jan. 22 deadline, the agency’s analysts have received 85 applications for general program funding and 82 for support from its Jeunes Createurs program. He says no less than a dozen additional feature film projects are expected by April 9, in time for the next ctf deadline.

‘The deadlines imposed by ctf have the effect of creating a bottleneck,’ says Lampron. ‘sodec is being forced to proceed with its analyses in a very short time frame because ctf is the last partner to confirm its participation, after decisions by other investors are known.’

Lampron says the criticism is not aimed at ctf’s managers but is meant to draw attention to a system he says is becoming ‘absurd.’

‘Telefilm Canada is even more affected than we are,’ he says. ‘As such, it’s likely that after April 9, 1999 [no Telefilm money] will be available through to March 31, 2000. And each of us feels the pinch, obliged to respect the rules of the game so as not to undermine someone else’s chance of accessing this source of financing.’

Lampron says sodec can’t change the rules, but in his speech to the acct crowd he personally appealed to several prominent industry figures in Quebec to seek out a solution, among them, Guy Crevier (Coscient Group president ceo), Daniel Lamarre (TVA Group president and ceo), Francois Macerola (Telefilm Canada executive director), Michelle Fortin (vp French television, Radio-Canada), Andre Bureau (chairman Astral Communications) and Andre Link (vice-chairman Lions Gate Entertainment).

‘It wouldn’t be the first time the industry was mobilized to revisit a detrimental [policy] direction,’ says Lampron.