Vancouver: On June 14 in Calgary, a final 28-hour session of negotiations between actra and u.s. and Canadian producers paid off with a tentative labor deal.

The new Independent Production Agreement – which should put an end to fears that domestic and service production will be interrupted by a national actors strike – will be mailed to 14,000 actra members by the first week of July. Ballots are due back by the first week of August.

If successfully ratified, the new ipa could be implemented by as early as mid-August and run until the end of December 2001.

‘It took a lot of hard work and the willingness to compromise on both sides of the table, but I think we have an agreement that everyone involved can be proud of,’ says Thor Bishopric, president of the actra Performers Guild.

‘Both sides bargained hard, but in the end we have a fair deal.’

‘I believe our members will be satisfied with the agreement,’ echoes Elizabeth McDonald, president of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association. ‘It will allow us to continue to make world-class productions using Canada’s best professional performers.’

Nick Counter of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers in the u.s., who was negotiating through the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association, says the deal ‘eliminates the tremendous uncertainty about bringing production to Canada.’

As for added costs, Counter says: ‘[The increased costs] are well within the parameters we were negotiating.’

The tentative ipa deal includes an 8% increase in performance fees for most performer categories in the first period of the agreement and a 2% increase in the second period. Under this arrangement, ‘Principal Performers’ will earn a minimum of $500 for an eight-hour call.

Other details include these points:

* Principal Performers will be defined as performers who speak six lines or more, which is down from 11 lines or more in the expired ipa. The ‘Actor’ term will apply to performers who speak five lines or fewer.

* There is stricter language for child performers in the area of on-set schooling. Also, when a young performer’s lifetime income reaches $5,000, 25% of future earnings will be placed in trust with the actra Performers Rights Society until that performer turns 18.

* The weekly discount for performers will be 15% in the new agreement, down from 20% in the expired ipa.

* Turnaround time will be 11 hours from set to set, up from 10 hours in the expired agreement.

* Stunt coordinators will earn a minimum of $650 per day with an eight-hour call.

* Productions in Toronto will be required to engage 25 actra members as background performers per day, up from 15 in the expired agreement.

Background performers will now get an eight-hour minimum call, which is up from six hours in the expired agreement. Background fees will increase about 4% in the first term of the agreement, and 2% in the next term.

Shoots in Montreal will have to engage 15 actra members and shoots in other cities will have to engage 10 actra members before going to general extras casting.

* The producers’ insurance and retirement contribution on behalf of the performer will increase by 1%.

* The statutory declaration signed by casting directors will include language to discourage casting directors from preventing open negotiation by performers for contracted rates above standard minimum fees.

The contentious issue of use fees was also settled. Prepayments will remain the same as in the old ipa, with a four-year prepayment period and payment minimums set at 105% for television and 130% for films.