Time flies. It seems like only five years ago that Wayne Clarkson delivered his inaugural speech at Prime Time in Ottawa. The industry had tasted the Stursbergian whip only to witness the whipmaster’s defection to the CBC. Then Wayne arrived.

‘I got to be the good guy,’ said the departing Telefilm Canada chief in a reflective mood on the phone from his cottage. The problem with being the good guy is that everyone expects you to deliver only good news.

Clarkson’s timing wasn’t great: less than a year after the bon cop arrived, the cultural bad cops took over in Ottawa. ‘They had other priorities,’ said Clarkson of Stephen Harper’s Conservative government. ‘So we suffered from benign neglect.’ And the opposition, barring the Bloc, are too divided to take a stand on culture in a minority parliament.

As Bon Cop, Bad Cop producer Kevin Tierney told me, ‘Telefilm directors will always be judged on whether they find new money… The world shrank a little, so in a way we’re lucky [Clarkson] managed to keep the money.’

In his early speeches, Clarkson decried the provinces’ reliance on tax credits to lure U.S. production as shortsighted. He called on the provinces to emulate SODEC in Quebec, harkening to his days as the original director of the Ontario Film Development Corp. Back in the 1980s, the OFDC was the second-largest public sector film financing entity in the country until Mike Harris’ provincial Conservatives pulled the plug.

Twenty years later, that agency, now the Ontario Media Development Corp., is only now returning to relevancy. Five years after Clarkson’s speech, the provincial tax credits have significantly increased, but equity investment is piffling. Meanwhile, SODEC spends an amount equal to Telefilm’s Quebec allocation.

Ours is not a country that believes culture is a matter of citizenship. Pair this with the current consumer mind-set that free content is a right and that file-sharing is a victimless crime and you won’t need an unemployed journalist to explain the results. The same illusory ‘freedom’ that makes road tolls an act of political suicide makes it impossible to convince Canadians that, as with education, an investment in culture now will pay back in a stronger country later.

‘It’s a thankless job,’ says Tierney of Clarkson and his peers in cultural administration, comparing him to a career diplomat. ‘To work at the federal level is extremely difficult. Their three mandates, film, TV and new media, and two sets of rules, English and French… such differing needs and cultural aspirations. The constant struggle for money and the terror of the five percent box office.’

Of all the film struggles, the 5% Solution was the millstone. Clarkson reiterated a military maxim he first referenced at his final Prime Time speech last February: ‘An objective without sufficient resources is a mirage. We achieved the objective… but to sustain it? At what price victory?’

When I suggested his great accomplishment was the CBC-Telefilm agreement to work together on feature production, he didn’t disagree. Television, especially those beautiful flat-screen HDTVs, are the perfect vehicle for showcasing motion pictures.

I asked him if he had any advice for his successor. He chose to address the federal government. ‘I would encourage them to explore a tax-incentive program to bring private sector money into the system.’ Repeating the mantra – ‘An objective without sufficient resources is a mirage’ – he said, ‘The business model has to change. Telefilm hasn’t changed in 40 years. We get money from the government and dispense it intelligently and effectively to productions. In Quebec, 80 percent of the funding comes from the state. Is that sustainable? If you feel culture supersedes everything then that is the price you pay.’

To that end, he kited the notion of the Canada Council merging with the National Film Board to streamline the cultural investment mandate. ‘The Australians have merged their several agencies. The UK Film Council is merging with the British Film Institute. It’s amazing. That would be like Telefilm merging with the Toronto International Film Festival.’

The underlying message to the next Telefilm ED: change is coming so deal with it now. ‘There are forces at play here. You’ve got to start taking action on it. Go digital, go international and set up a tax incentive for private dollars.’

Clarkson’s timing was also poor on the meta-level. We can blame commercial television for instilling the notion of ‘free’ entertainment, but the Internet cemented it without delivering the revenue. As most content providers have discovered, giving it away is not the answer. Paradigm shifts are sexy conceptually, but living through them is not pleasant.

‘I sometimes feel we’re an island in a stream,’ said Clarkson. ‘The flow of water has increased and is sweeping around us. It’s difficult for government agencies to keep pace. Look at the broadcasters themselves and the print industry and what they are struggling with. The digitization of everything is going to be dramatic and I’m not sure they are ready.’

Are you?