Brian Anthony is national executive director and chief executive officer of the Directors Guild of Canada.

Competition for a reference in a federal budget is fierce at the best of times, but particularly so in a restraint environment, and many good ideas inevitably find themselves on the fiscal cutting room floor. This year was no exception, and representatives of the screen-based industry were understandably disappointed when their recommendations were not addressed in the 2010 edition tabled in the House of Commons on March 4 by the federal minister of finance.

The Directors Guild of Canada, for example, made three recommendations in its annual pre-budget brief to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance – the maximum number allowed by the committee in its call for five-page submissions – which in turn makes recommendations to the minister of finance. The first called for a significant increase to the parliamentary appropriations of the federal programs operating in this field – Telefilm Canada, the National Film Board and the CBC.

This perennial call went unheeded but, given the current austerity context, one has to realistically consider this more of a long-term proposition.

However, the good news in the budget was that these cultural agencies, recently subjected to the same priority-setting strategic review process as all other federal departments and agencies, will be able to retain the financial resources that might otherwise have been reallocated to other programs. All three agencies, as well as the Canada Council for the Arts, were reassuringly deemed ‘aligned with the priorities of Canadians’ in the budget documents.

The other two DGC recommendations were tax-related. One urged a significant expansion of the federal tax credit system to encourage more production activity, domestic and foreign. The other called for a powerful tax incentive to encourage much-needed private investment in film, television and digital media production. Other organizations in the industry also pressed for these and other tax changes, such as the elimination of the grind and income averaging for self-employed creators and cultural workers in the sector, proposals which the DGC also supports strongly.

Following its appearance late last year before the Standing Committee on Finance during its pre-budget consultative hearings, the DGC embarked on a series of high-level meetings with appropriate federal officials, both elected and appointed. Particular emphasis was placed during these discussions on the two tax-related proposals, as they seemed to generate the most interest.

These two proposals, which are as reasonable as they are desirable, would be manageable and affordable – even in the current and foreseeable austerity context – and would go a long way towards increasing production activity. Moreover, they would have fit comfortably in such general budget categories as building jobs and the economy of tomorrow, strengthening Canadian innovation, advancing the digital economy, encouraging investment, and so on.

While many other industries were highlighted in the budget, it was disappointing that the film, television and digital media industry was not accorded even a passing reference. A general statement about the importance of the industry and a commitment to consult its representative organizations about the ways and means by which the federal government might best assist in strengthening it, in making it more competitive, in helping to position it to better face the challenges and changes currently facing the sector, would have been the right message at the right time. It was a missed opportunity, but discussions are ongoing in the hope that won’t be the case next time.