MONTREAL — Telefilm Canada’s head of financing says it makes sense that Quebec gets the lion’s share of the organization’s feature film money, responding to grumbling in the industry after a news report that revealed la belle province received 48% of the cash it doled out to moviemakers over the past decade.

‘There is a perception that Quebec is receiving preferential treatment. But that’s not the case,’ says director of project financing Michel Pradier.

An article in the Montreal newspaper La Presse last week revealed that of the $665.3 million handed out to Canadian feature filmmakers from 1999 to 2009, the Quebec industry got $319.7 million — a figure which covers productions in both English and French.

Over the same period, Ontario received $183.4 million and British Columbia $83.7 million. Alberta received roughly $24 million, Saskatchewan $3.5 million and Manitoba $8.6 million.

Why? Because of the formula for calculating how features get money from Telefilm.

Telefilm money is divided up by language. Annually two-thirds of the cash goes to English-language projects — roughly $60 million — and one-third, or roughly $19 million, to French, most of which are made in Quebec. As a result, Quebec, which has less than one-quarter of Canada’s population, gets one-third of the feature funding pie. (Over 10 years, French-language films received $239.2 million or 35% of the money handed out).

Further, the English-language production community, which includes major players such as Kevin Tierney (Bon Cop, Bad Cop) is able to take advantage of Telefilm’s ‘regional production initiative,’ which divides $16 million among four regions: Quebec, the West, the Atlantic provinces and Ontario. ‘The fund is to ensure that there is a minimum amount of production in the regions, and Quebec gets 7%,’ says Pradier.

Why, then, are Quebec filmmakers forever complaining that Telefilm doesn’t give them enough support? Because the industry here is expanding, says Pradier: ‘The rate of refusal in French is much higher than in English. We refuse 75% of the projects we receive from French-language producers,’ he says. ‘In English, the rate of refusal is much less.’

Despite the explanations, Tara Walker of the association On Screen Manitoba is shocked that her province only received $8.6 million. ‘That’s amazing. I’m surprised. We have such incredible talent in this province,’ she says, pointing to directors such as Guy Maddin and Norma Bailey. ‘It’s not like we are culturally barren.’

Walker believes that Telefilm is inaccessible to filmmakers from smaller centers, noting that the funder has ‘one person covering the West and his office isn’t here. We don’t benefit from that face-to-face contact.’

Walker points out that in 2007/08, Manitoba was Canada’s fourth-largest production center.

But Pradier, who views Manitoba mainly as a service production center, stands by his system, noting that, ‘$8.6 million works out to roughly a feature every two years. That’s not so bad. Prince Edward [Island] only received $19,000.’