The Writers Guild of Canada has joined ACTRA against the CRTC’s recommendations for the Canadian Television Fund, and in a Tuesday release accused the regulator of selling out Canadian talent in order to ‘placate Shaw and Videotron.’

The WGC objects to the suggestion in the report, released late last week, that the minimum CAVCO requirement for primetime content backed by CTF should be lowered to 8 out of 10 points, from 10 out of 10. The change would make it possible for CTF-funded productions to be made without a Canadian director, writer or lead actor and drew a similar rebuke from ACTRA on Tuesday.

‘We’re very upset about this point, because clearly the CRTC is saying that Canadians can’t deliver commercial product…which is complete bull,’ WGC executive director Maureen Parker tells Playback Daily.

The CRTC task force was put in place after Montreal-based Videotron and Calgary-based Shaw Communications temporarily halted payments to the CTF earlier this year, denouncing how it manages and dispenses funds.

Parker, who calls the task force report misguided, complicated and regressive, says the WGC will call for a public review of the issues, and will fight the regulator on the CAVCO point.

‘Writers are the key essential ingredient in TV production, and if [a production does] indeed decide to go with an American writer, then I will challenge them under the Canadian Broadcasting Act to say it’s not a Canadian program,’ she says. CTF stakeholders are expected to file responses to the CRTC, which will issue a final report sometime in August.

Last week, Shaw Communications CEO Jim Shaw threatened for a third time to pull his company’s support from the CTF in a letter to CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein.

‘We believe that without significant changes to the CTF, it would be irresponsible for us to continue to support it by taking money from our subscribers and funneling it to the CTF,’ wrote Shaw in the June 28 letter, one day prior to the task force’s report.