A lot that was once unthinkable for the Canadian industry has become normal during the current recession.

It took the spectre of broadcasters to get Canadian actors and producers to bury their differences and bond. It happened during the latest round of negotiations for a new Independent Production Agreement, which governs pay and workplace conditions for domestic performers.

Ex-foes-turned-allies Stephen Waddell, national executive director of ACTRA, and John Barrack, national executive VP and counsel for the CFTPA, last month agreed to terms on a new labor deal in record time, well before the existing IPA expires at the end of 2009.

And in the process, these strange bedfellows managed to erase the bad blood of the early 2008 Canadian actors strike and unite ACTRA and CFTPA members in a joint lobbying fight against broadcasters in Ottawa at the recent CRTC licence renewal hearings.

I guess it’s normal that Waddell and Barrack – who went at it hammer and tongs during the 2007 IPA talks as chief negotiators for their respective sides – would make like a band of brothers as they unveil their latest deal.

But Waddell and Barrack say they ended their rowdy rivalry even before the ink on the 2007 IPA deal had dried over a hard lesson learnt during the five previous months of bargaining.

‘The elephant in the room was something neither of us controlled: the relationship producers had with the broadcasters,’ Barrack recalls. Canadian networks at the time were squeezing producers with demands for all new media rights on TV projects, while ACTRA was demanding compensation from producers for its members’ new media performances.

So no sooner did ACTRA and the CFTPA shake hands on the current IPA deal in February 2008 than the healing began. Waddell and fellow actors showed up at the producers’ Prime Time conference in Ottawa. And Barrack and his crew reciprocated when they attended the ACTRA Awards in Toronto.

The relationship-building continued soon after at strategy sessions where the CFTPA joined the unions and guilds, including ACTRA, to coordinate policy statements on issues of common interest. Then, a year ago, Barrack and Waddell agreed over lunch to conclude a quick and peaceful IPA deal in 2009.

Waddell argues industry strikes occur when a new form of technology is introduced and uncertainty surrounds how performers, writers and directors will be compensated. The 1980s Hollywood strikes over the introduction of pay-TV and videocassettes were cases in point.

But he adds there was no need for confrontation during the latest IPA round because the existing agreement spawned a made-in-Canada solution for new media compensation that still works for Canadian actors, producers and Americans that shoot north of the border.

Both Barrack and Waddell earlier this year separately approached the major studios in Los Angeles to argue the new media provisions in the current IPA deal did not need to be renegotiated – and the Americans agreed.

Barrack adds that ACTRA is seen by producers these days as an industry ally precisely because ‘the [IPA] agreement, particularly in the new media sector, is working.’

He fully expects a hard conversation with ACTRA as a business model for new media will evolve. But both sides aren’t there yet, and may not be anytime soon.

‘It’s smarter to have more information in the kitty when you have that conversation than grapple around like 16-year-olds in the dark like we were the last time,’ Barrack says.

Barrack and Waddell even approached the major studios during the latest IPA round and convinced them to leave the collective agreement’s new media provisions alone.

Which brings us to the latest showdowns in Ottawa at the recent CRTC licence renewal hearings for conventional broadcasters, and the Heritage committee’s hearings into Canadian broadcasting.

Barrack says ACTRA and the CFTPA have joined with the other guilds to craft a ‘consistent’ message about putting the interests of Canadian TV viewers before those of private broadcasters and cable giants.

‘We’re saying that, in the squabbling among the parents, let’s not forget the children, which are Canadian audiences. And this means ensuring there’s a distinctly Canadian presence on television, and not just local news,’ Barrack explains.

Waddell adds the current terms of trade negotiations between producers and broadcasters ‘should be normal business practice, to have an agreed template for the licensing of product from independent producers.’

Instead, Waddell says the broadcasters are fighting the process, which impacts on actors and other rights-holders further down the industry food chain.

‘We didn’t go on strike in order to get a percentage of the distributors’ gross revenue in new media to find out that CTV, Global Television and the CBC are paying a nominal amount of money to independent producers for new media distribution. But that’s what we’re finding,’ he says.

Both Waddell and Barrack are betting the CRTC will urge the broadcasters to take the terms of trade negotiations seriously before the next licence renewal hearings in 2010.

But even more bewildering is ACTRA and the CFTPA supporting the broadcasters’ current high-profile fight for compensation from big cable for carriage of their conventional TV signals – as long as the broadcasters pour the new money into drama production, and not local news.

The Canadian industry these days sure makes for some strange bedfellows.