Ken Ferguson is president of Toronto Film Studios and one of the leading advocates for film and TV production in Ontario. TFS was selected by TEDCO, a city-owned agency, to build the new Film/Media Complex in Toronto’s Port Lands.

The Canadian film production industry seems to have dodged a bullet. Last November, things looked desperate. The Canadian dollar was at a 12-year high, the Bush administration and many U.S. states had passed legislation to discourage ‘runaway production’ and SARS and ‘mad cow disease’ had left a stigma over most of Canada.

The mood within our industry was downright disheartening. Massive downsizing or reduced work hours became a survival necessity of service suppliers and facilities operators. Film workers who hadn’t seen a paycheque in months were looking for other career options. Many were scared for the well-being of their families.

Now, suddenly, the picture looks much brighter. Provincial governments stepped forward at the eleventh hour and increased tax credits, offsetting the incentives boasted by states like Louisiana and New Mexico that targeted Canada-bound production work. This after various film industry associations, buoyed by boisterous membership rallies, came together as never before to make a compelling case for the survival of an important industry.

It seems to have worked. New productions are flowing out of Hollywood and the future looks encouraging. Problem solved.

Or has it been?

Many would argue that we’ve simply upped the ante in a race-to-the-bottom. In fact, right after Ontario, B.C. and Quebec raised their tax credits in support of Canada’s three primary film production centers, several other provinces raised theirs even higher.

In the meantime, nothing has been done to address the more fundamental problems that conspire to maintain Canada’s status as a perpetual underachiever in the film and television production industry. Indigenous production is underfunded. Broadcasters don’t want it anyway. And tax credits and a lower dollar remain the essence of our survival.

Unless we implement a national strategy to build a sustainable industry, we will succumb to a dependency on government programs, world currency markets and tight-fisted American clients.

Why is it that a nation that nurtures a disproportionate share of entertainment talent can’t find a formula to exploit this talent at home? Why is it that, through years of training and commitment, we develop Hollywood-quality crews in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, then inflict national policies that require them to leave their families to follow the work to other parts of the country?

For that matter, why, as a nation, do we undermine the massive investment that has been made in these three world-renowned film centers in studios, equipment houses, post-production facilities and other hard infrastructure (that competitors like Louisiana would take years to develop, if ever) by trying to develop a multitude of secondary film centers all across Canada?

As Canadians, we are proud of our commitment to democracy and fairness, but does it really make sense to take something in which we excel on a world scale and dismember it for the sake of national sharing? How does this benefit the growth and sustainability of our industry?

Would Bombardier be considering expansion in Canada if told that its new airplane plant could not be built as part of its existing facilities in Toronto or Montreal? Should we be telling Ford and GM that they need to relocate some of their assembly lines to other regions in the name of political correctness?

There is a valid need for the various regions within Canada to develop their cultures and tell their own stories. But this should not be exercised as an excuse to use scarce public funds to build unviable filmmaking facilities that target business from the U.S. or other parts of Canada. To do so is just dumb; it weakens our ability to compete as a nation and to have our talent take its rightful place on the world stage.

Instead, Canada needs to focus its resources on developing a film and television production business that employs our overabundance of talent, innovation and technical skills. There will never be a shortage of newcomers around the globe that seek to build a local film industry by throwing money at Hollywood producers. Canada doesn’t have the dough to try to keep up with those players. But we have a wealth of skills and infrastructure that few cities or nations can match.

We need reasonably competitive tax credits and stable government policies to stay in the game, but it is our acting talent, our infrastructure and our technical skills that should be putting us on top.

Canada can achieve greatness in this industry, but it must start by thinking big. We need to shake our tiresome inferiority complex and set the bar much higher. This cannot be done without a national focus – a game plan based on two major goals: (1) develop a Canadian product that will be enjoyed at home and abroad, and (2) strengthen our standing as a reliable producer of foreign (not just American) product.

How? Here are a few suggestions:

* Domestic production needs equity capital. Meanwhile, many Canadians are seeking investment vehicles to replace underperforming stocks and mutual funds. Let’s get these two groups together.

Some argue that film tax shelters were abused in the mid-eighties. So what! Get over it. Let’s learn from prior mistakes and develop programs with merit. How hard can that be? There’s cash out there that can fuel our domestic growth.

* Leverage government funds. Domestic productions funded solely or predominantly by government agencies are burdened by rules and policies that stifle creativity. The meager available funds are painfully doled out to selected projects (usually too little and too late) while other projects die at the concept stage.

The facilitation of private equity (through tax-shelter or other programs) would inject entrepreneurship and creativity and allow federal funds to be spread over far more projects.

* We need to change the way Canadian broadcasters are judged on Canadian content. If domestic product is made out of necessity and not for entertainment merit, it will never find real audiences either in Canada or abroad. When the success of shows like Corner Gas and Degrassi: The Next Generation comes as a surprise to the networks, there is something fundamentally wrong with the development process.

* Raise the bar on domestic production quality. It pains us to see cash-strapped productions squander time and resources in unprofessional and depressing work environments when cost efficiencies can be realized in better-equipped facilities. Some of these productions spend more time on property management than film production. If you think small, you will stay small.

Here are a few more suggestions:

* Toronto Mayor David Miller created and chairs a new Film Board to strengthen Toronto’s film office and to boost the city’s standing in world markets. Vancouver and Montreal should do the same.

* Canadians excel in certain sectors such as animation, comedy and music. We need to leverage our prominence in these fields by showcasing them and providing the tools they need to reach even greater heights.

* We tend to lay low when the rhetoric and misinformation starts up in the U.S. about ‘runaway production.’ But Canadians are enormous consumers of entertainment product and we have every right to defend our role in the production of it. We are not Johnny-come-lately trying to steal U.S. jobs. Canadians were pioneers in the early development of film and television and we’re damn good at what we do. American producers know this but they don’t understand why we don’t defend ourselves.

We also need to look at strategies to:

* Increase domestic screen access for Canadian productions.

* Get Canadians over the stigma that homegrown productions are artsy but not entertaining.

* Increase coproductions with other countries.

* Increase foreign production for other-than-American producers.

* Continue to develop vital skills through the many fine college programs and film schools.

So, now that the film industry seems to be back on its feet, do we simply resume our role as parts-suppliers of American product and producers of made-because-we-had-to domestic product? Or will national filmmakers’ associations get together with government to plan strategies to avert a future crisis? Should we maintain the status quo and struggle helplessly through the next perfect storm (the ‘cycles’ of the industry as deniers prefer to call it) or should we develop a strategy to elevate Canada’s status as a leader in the production of exceptional entertainment product?

That was a rhetorical question. It’s time to think big.