The Canadian Film Centre, the National Screen Institute and the Institut National de L’Image et du Son have formally asked Heritage Minister Josée Verner to reverse her decision to cut roughly 20% of their operating budgets.

In a letter sent to Verner last week, all three organizations maintain that the $2.5 million in cuts to the National Training Program in the film and video sector announced in early August came as ‘a total surprise’ because Heritage appeared to approve of their work in a recent evaluation.

‘Your department’s cancellation of NTPVS is a completely inexplicable and mistaken strategy,’ says the letter, which is signed by director general of INIS Michel Desjardins, CFC head Slawko Klymkiw, and NSI director of business development Paul Moreau.

The letter claims that an evaluation report commissioned by Heritage said that all three of their schools are ‘clearly delivering good quality training and their graduates are highly satisfied.’

‘Our director received a phone call in her car late on a Friday afternoon telling us about the cuts, which was very odd,’ Moreau tells Playback Daily. ‘The report Heritage did on our operations recommended some slight tweaks and adjustments, not the cancellation of the program.’