Canadian Television Fund week in Gatineau produced its own share of quality domestic drama.

CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein wasn’t there to lord over the hearings on the CTF’s future. Jim Shaw got mad at this and personally boycotted, sending reps to do his railing. They said the CTF is a failure and should be cancelled, and the money BDUs contribute should instead be forwarded to their customers. Canwest said that the Shaw company doesn’t understand how the TV biz works.

Quebecor reiterated that it would gladly pay into a fund so long as it would be for shows that it would produce and own. (In other words, it wouldn’t gladly pay into a fund.) ACTRA, WGC, DGC and CFTPA said that the CTF is just fine, thank you, and this entire exercise was just a gigantic waste of time.

Also prominent was Rogers, a major contributor to the fund as a cable provider, as well as the new kid on the conventional TV block following its purchase of the Citytvs. Rogers Communications vice chairman Phil Lind argued that the annual contribution of around $140 million from BDUs should go to a brand-new fund for commercially minded programs, while the government’s $120 million should back a CTF strictly for the CBC, educational broadcasters and regional producers.

But the proposal that may have the most resonance for the CRTC came from the CAB. Along the lines of Rogers’ plan but less radical, the broadcaster association pushed for keeping both private and public monies within the CTF, but splitting the fund into two streams – one commercial, with lower Cancon standards, and one cultural. This fits with recommendations made in a report by the CRTC’s task force last summer.

While this solution might be seen as a way of pacifying disgruntled BDUs, administering the fund this way would be madness. Can somebody please tell me where culture stops and commerce begins in popular television?

These proposals may have had some traction back when Shaw first withheld its monthly cheques to the fund and the CBC seemingly couldn’t do much right in its primetime schedule, but much has changed since then. The CBC is more audience-driven than ever, and it has a number of successes to justify its approach. Little Mosque on the Prairie? The Rick Mercer Report? The Border? They all meet both commercial and cultural goals.

And look at the recent Canadian show sales to the U.S. market. The likes of CBS, NBC and ABC Family were not motivated by any concerns about Canadian culture when they forked over cash for Flashpoint, The Listener and Sophie, respectively. But don’t these 10/10 Cancon shows count as Canadian culture nonetheless?

The task force suggestion that CAVCO requirements be lessened to 8/10 points for primetime shows has been extremely divisive, and drops a very delicate decision in the CRTC’s lap. On one hand, the broadcasters have a point. If they are going to spend substantial money – from their CTF envelopes and otherwise – to air original programming, they don’t want to be overly restricted when assembling the best creative teams, whether individuals hail from Moncton, Hollywood or the U.K.

On the downside, this strategy would diminish employment opportunities for Canadians, and stunts the development of our homegrown creative talent. And, as successes like Flashpoint, The Listener and Sophie prove, all-Canadian shows can indeed stand tall next to U.S. productions.

Lest we forget, a double-stream CTF was in place at the onset, made up of the BDU-driven Licence Fee Program and Telefilm Canada’s Equity Investment Program, resulting in much confusion and frustration for everyone involved. The system evolved, taking a more market-oriented slant, and finally, after a tremendous amount of effort on the part of the CTF’s operators, out came the Broadcaster Performance Envelopes.

And the BPEs are a logical way for the fund to be structured. As the digital age moves forward, it will become increasingly important for broadcasters’ overall health to develop original programs that they can own and exploit over various platforms. Maybe broadcasters see this to be the case, as evidenced by a greater emphasis on domestic production recently by CTV, which commissioned Flashpoint and The Listener, and Global, which has scored a success with the CTF-backed The Guard. Or maybe they’re just trying to look good ahead of their licence renewals.

But with Canadian shows bound to take on a bigger role in broadcasters’ schedules, we can be assured that – if the fund’s status quo is maintained – casters will use their CTF money toward shows they truly believe will succeed.

The current system has been in place for only four years, and it is starting to generate a number of genuine successes. To implement an overhaul at this point would be foolhardy.