Wind Over Dark Tickle.

Title of a captivating children’s book about the ebb and flow of cod in the seas off Newfoundland. Book that’s headed for a tv adaptation since its producers have just been awarded money through one of Canada’s support funds. Program that all Canadians have a reasonable chance of seeing. Small wonder of national cultural dream, in which stories from one end of a land forcibly linked by rail entertain the good burghers at the other end of the land, and every whistle stop in between.

But, alas, small wonders are not comfort enough. (Or else the comfort factor has simply blown itself out above the vortex that is Ontario.) Reasoned but familiar Western plaints crash ashore with the tide, sown with the seeds in spring. And as the politicians call for the will of the people – to wit, what’s needed from the national public broadcaster and the federal policy on feature film production – the chorus of suggestions becomes the wail of a storm.

The Prairies say the cbc, currently trying to reel 31 new licences from the crtc, needs financing envelopes and broadcast slots dedicated to Prairie productions. Educational channel scn even calls for an end to big-budget drama and sports on the cbc, suggesting the Corporation serve instead as ‘Canada’s source of information about itself.’

Not clear what that would portend, but the gist of it is that the regions need to show up more on-air. Now that cbc has a strong hint from the crtc that its future does not include more new specialty channels (see ‘French specs,’ p. 1), maybe the tailwind pushing the ‘Regions ‘R Us’ lobby within the pubcaster will gain new force.

Meanwhile, on the port side in b.c., the focus of discontent is the prospect of a new feature film fund that would amend the federal Production Services Tax Credit so that only Canadian producers making Canadian features would have access. b.c. Culture Minister Ian Waddell wants that idea uprooted before any new fund takes hold in the government’s imagination since he argues that the service-dominated film industry in b.c. ‘is as important as [the industry] in Central Canada.’ He wants to plant the notion that the country needs two main English-language (production) centers, they being Toronto and Vancouver.

As usual, the federally commissioned report and its detractors in the regions are after the same ends: a stronger industry, feature production in particular; trouble is, the national strategy would undercut the regional growth. So it’s time for the regional growers to sow solutions instead of just the seeds of discontent.

The growing pains of a maturing industry: they tend to get worse before they get better. Like the cod disappearing before slowly returning to the barren seas and the wind coaxing a low laugh from dark tickle.