Telefilm Canada, the Canadian Television Fund and the Department of Canadian Heritage are closing in on an agreement that stands to rewrite the federal system for television funding, possibly by handing the entire TV file to either Telefilm or the CTF.

A decision is expected from Heritage Minister Liza Frulla sometime before the Banff World Television Festival in June, and although no one is willing to predict the outcome, there are four options under consideration:

* Putting all television funding under the purview of Telefilm, effectively eliminating the CTF.

* Putting it all under the CTF, leaving Telefilm to focus on feature films and new media.

* Separating the funding so that public money goes to Telefilm and private money goes to CTF.

* Maintaining the status quo.

A fifth possibility, advocated by some stakeholders, is a merger between Telefilm and CTF.

‘We’re talking with the department regularly and looking at the various options,’ says Danielle Dansereau, spokesperson for the CTF. ‘We’re hoping we are going to hear where we are going.’

Telefilm and Heritage had little to say, noting only that the talks were still underway. ‘We’re happy to be part of the consultation,’ says Telefilm spokesperson Douglas Chow.

Recent rumblings out of Ottawa over the Gomery inquiry and threats of another federal election in late spring have cast a dark cloud over the issue. An election call would scuttle any planned announcement.

But should an overhaul come, it is hoped that it will end years of hand-wringing and complaints about how TV shows are funded in Canada. Currently both CTF and Telefilm oversee funding and have separate boards, a system considered by most to be cumbersome.

The debate has simmered for years, but was galvanized by the Lincoln Report when it recommended a one-board, one-administration solution – a concept supported by organizations such as Telefilm and the CFTPA. The issue was also heightened in the run-up to the most recent federal election when the government renewed funding to the CTF at $100 million per year to 2006 – in part to give the industry time to sort out its governance issues.

Frulla’s recent response to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage also mentions that the government will work with the CTF and Telefilm to ‘investigate the efficiency and impact’ of the Equity Investment Program, currently managed by Telefilm, and that there will be ‘continuous’ efforts to make the CTF more efficient.

There have been two official consultations with the industry – Oct. 1, 2003 and April 15, 2004 – and hours of other talks between Telefilm, the CTF and Heritage involving, among others, CTF chairperson Douglas Barrett and deputy heritage minister Judith LaRocque.

‘We maintain that we need one board and one administration,’ says Jane Thompson, spokesperson for the CFTPA. ‘It’s of the utmost importance that producers get the most out of the CTF… that money goes into production, not administration.’

The CFTPA has not taken a position as to which solution is best and, with their futures at stake, neither the CTF nor Telefilm is keen to predict how the story will unfold.

-www.canadianheritage.gc.ca