Finance Minister Ralph Goodale heard the pleas that the restoration of the CTF was essential to the well-being of the Canadian production sector, not to mention one of the essential underpinnings of Canadian culture: the ability for Canadians to tell Canadian stories.

On March 23, Goodale, making good on a promise made last year by Prime Minister Paul Martin, restored the federal government’s contribution to the CTF back to its pre-2003 $100-million level. Next year, the CTF will get another $100 million. After that… well 2006 could look a whole lot like 2003, maybe worse.

Ever since the federal government announced a 25% cut to its CTF contribution, producers, broadcasters, actors, writers, directors and crews have presented a semi-united front insisting that the restoration of funding was critical to the long-term viability of the production industry. The yawp was for stable and predictable funding.

Did they get it?

Well, only to an industry that has been slapped around the way the production sector has for the past 13 months would a two-year commitment be construed as predictable and consistent.

What the federal government did March 23 was right and good, but it did not clarify the situation over the long term.

According to a study completed by Nordicity Group for the CFTPA, the $37.5 million put back into the CTF this year will result in the retention of 2,400 jobs, plus 277 hours and $88 million in production activity.

But it would do all concerned a great deal of good to look at the announcement as a stay of execution. The industry now has two years to figure out what to do should funds be pulled at the end of the newest commitment.

A lot can happen in two years. There is the distinct possibility that a government formed by the Conservative Party of Canada could push funding for film and TV way down its list of priorities. There is a significant portion of the public that considers $100 million to help produce Canadian TV programming as a waste when that money could go to tax cuts. While the soft middle still supports such funding, this is not France. Cuts to cultural funding almost never result in general strikes and scenes of fierce chest pounding by the populace.

The folly of simply depending on the feds for a share of tax dollars has been proven. Other solutions must be sought. Broadcasters and the CRTC must find ways to do more, licence fees need to improve and new innovative solutions need to come to the fore.

Former broadcast executive Kevin Shea is due before the CRTC a second time with his proposal to sell Canadian advertising on northbound U.S. cable channels such as CNN and A&E. In a filing with the original application, Shea’s company, 49th Media, pitched that part of its revenues should go to the CTF, a contribution projected to grow to $32 million per year.

It may not be THE solution, but it demonstrates that there is the possibility for alternatives.

The answer is out there. The clock is again ticking.