Minister of Heritage Helene Scherrer flew 2,400 km from her Louis-Hebert riding outside Quebec City to address the Canadian TV industry June 14 at the Banff Television Festival. She did this in the midst of a hotly contested battle in her own riding, where her own reelection is in jeopardy.

The Liberal brain trust obviously thinks the 1,200 delegates attending Banff and the national ink from her visit are important enough to warrant such a trip.

But if Canada’s culture industries are important enough to fly Scherrer across the country, you have to wonder why the party has nothing in its platform to address cultural issues. A collection of cultural groups – on behalf of a membership that would amount to a small army – has been asking the same question. On the film and TV side, an unprecedented coalition representing a dozen French- and English-language groups including the CAB, CFTPA, APFTQ, SARTEC, ACTRA, Union des artistes and the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting have been beating the drum on the issue since early June.

What they are looking for is clarity – particularly from the Liberal and Conservative parties – as to what their plans are, should they form the next government of Canada. Their concern is no surprise. These groups rely on government support in order to channel Canadian stories back to Canadians, and even the slightest cuts can wreak havoc, as witnessed last year when the federal government cut $25 million from its annual CTF contribution.

In an open letter to the leaders of the five major parties, the coalition asks each to provide policy platforms on the ownership of Canadian telecommunications and broadcasting properties, the maintenance of Canadian-content regulation in broadcasting and broadcast distribution, and provisions for stable long-term financial support for Canada’s cultural industries.

The ‘cultural sector,’ the letter reads, ‘directly and indirectly’ employs over 150,000 Canadians and represents ‘billions of dollars in economic activity.’

In the Liberal policy book, there is not so much as a mention of Canadian cultural industries. But of particular concern is a leaked Tory document, titled ‘Policy Briefing Note for Candidates,’ that says a Conservative government would create an open market with the U.S. for licensing television satellite distribution and ‘conduct an immediate review to determine whether to reduce or completely remove’ foreign ownership rules on telecom and broadcast distribution. The document also supports the restructuring of the CRTC, ‘reducing its mandate to registration and/or marketing of bandwidth and to dealing with international communications negotiations.’

Smelling an opportunity, the Liberals dispatched Scherrer to Banff to address the TV industry.

In January, Scherrer spoke to delegates at Prime Time in Ottawa. There, she promised to do everything in her power to restore the $25-million cut from the federal government’s contribution to the CTF. She delivered.

So, the Liberals sent their star cultural candidate to meet with producers in Banff. Beyond a half-hour of Conservative-bashing, Scherrer delivered only platitudes and nothing tangible to assuage the concerns of Canada’s cultural groups.

It was a wasted opportunity in a long list this election that appears to be leading to a fall for the Liberals – and possibly the film and TV biz, to boot.