It’s the biggest story of the year if not the decade. After hiding in plain sight for at least 30 years, it’s finally going to happen: the CBC will work with Telefilm Canada to make feature films for Sunday primetime national telecasts.

The plan was hatched at an epochal breakfast earlier this year between two Telefilm executive directors: the current one, Wayne Clarkson, and the previous one, Richard Stursberg, executive vice-president of English programming at the CBC since 2006.

Before anyone gets too excited, pay close attention to the Nov. 12 announcement, in which the CBC’s participation diminishes with each succeeding paragraph. First, it’s an ‘approach’; three graphs later, it’s a ‘proposed approach.’ There is no set start date.

‘The CBC will contribute to the development and production of up to four projects per year, focusing on films that would be suited for both commercial theaters and CBC’s Sunday evening primetime movie program slot. CBC, in collaboration with Telefilm, will also work with independent producers, their creative teams and distributors on production and promotion of films…’

I asked Clarkson, who is leaving the post in January after five years, why it took so long to forge so obvious a partnership. He was unabashed. ‘Things find their time,’ he said. ‘There were other priorities for both of us. Richard and I would check in once in a while, but some things have to wait their time. Richard has his challenges, we had ours.’

One struggles to imagine a more important cultural role for Canada’s sole public broadcaster than to show the films financed by Canada’s sole film investment agency.

I put the same question to Fred Fuchs, general manager, production enterprises, English services for the CBC, who at least has the excuse (à la Michael Ignatieff) of having been out of the country for most of his career. ‘It wasn’t that the CBC wasn’t involved in feature films but we viewed them as acquisitions,’ he said. ‘We didn’t get to broadcast them until two years after they were released.’

In the brave new world of VOD and Apple TV and piracy, getting the last kick at the can is a mug’s game. The announcement continues: ‘Key to the concept will be the ability to collapse the amount of time between theatrical release and CBC broadcast to enhance cross-promotion opportunities.’

But – snooty Toronto filmmakers beware! — the CBC is going to select the projects based on populist criteria: the films must appeal to the one million Canadian viewers watching Heartland in the 7-8 p.m. timeslot immediately prior. There’s a certain sense to that — one million in the hand is worth two million in the bush.

The money – if it comes – sounds promising. As Clarkson pointed out, Telefilm can contribute up to $3.5 million in equity production financing on a picture and the CBC would likely contribute between $1 million and $1.5 million as a broadcast licence fee (numbers Fuchs endorsed). Fuchs said the CBC’s financial commitment will be on a project-by-project basis.

I spoke with Steve Jenkins, head of films for BBC program acquisitions, about how they do it back in the old country. He told me about the BBC commitment to a program that would make any (and many more) aspiring filmmakers giddy.

Film London, a production scheme underwritten by the metropolitan government, created a program called Microwave to produce 10 features, each with a budget of £100,000 ($173,000). The BBC is the dedicated broadcaster on this scheme and several others like it.

One Microwave title, Shifty, is an urban thriller following 24 hours in the life of a drug dealer. Not exactly a segue from Heartland, but it did premiere at the London Film Festival and went on to win five British Independent Film Awards.

Bearing in mind that the U.K.’s 25 million TV households are required by law to pay a licence fee of $250 a year, yielding a broadcasting fund of some $6 billion, their broadcasting corporation could teach our broadcasting corporation a few tricks.

As Jenkins put it: ‘As a publicly funded broadcaster that’s part of our remit.’