The mayor of Toronto, together with area stakeholders, is calling on the Canadian Television Fund to end what they call discrimination against producers in Ontario and its capital.

In an open letter to CTF chairman Douglas Barrett, Mayor David Miller, ACTRA Toronto boss Brian Topp and producer Susan Murdoch called on the funding agency to stop providing perks to projects that shoot outside Ontario, charging that regional bonuses have cut into Hollywood North by driving producers elsewhere.

‘The federal government has invested a great deal to build up a first-rate film and television industry in Ontario,’ says Miller, in a statement released with the letter. ‘It makes no sense for the federal agencies to devalue that investment.’

The fund previously gave cash incentives to producers who worked outside the province. It now sends similar bonuses to the broadcasters.

The letter also takes aim at CTF policies for Vancouver, calling it ‘perverse and insidious’ that the city, which enjoys a booming film trade and a population of more than two million, is classified as a region.

The letter calls on CTF to level its playing field – treating all Canuck producers, or, failing that, the major centers of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, equally.

The CTF board of directors met early this month to review its rules. It had no immediate comment on the letter. Miller, Topp and Murdoch are members of the city’s film board, formed and chaired by the Toronto mayor to revive the area’s lagging film and TV trade. The board took shape a year after the SARS crisis.

The 19-person board has close ties to the lobby group Film Ontario, of which Murdoch and Topp are also members.