ACTRA on Monday trekked to Ottawa to demand more industry funding and support.

The Canadian actors union appeared before the Parliamentary standing committee on finance and called for more public investment in content creation, and incentives to leverage public support with private content investment.

As the finance committee prepares recommendations for the upcoming 2011 federal budget, ACTRA also called for domestic ‘communications’ companies to remain in Canadian hands to ensure shelf space for homegrown content.

Tyrone Benskin, an actor and ACTRA vice president, urged the House of Commons committee to increase funding for the Canada Media Fund, Telefilm Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the National Film Board as bulwarks for digital content creation in the future.

“These institutions are key to maximizing the potential of digital technology in the creation, innovation, production and distribution of compelling Canadian content,” Benskin urged.

Also pitching the pre-budget consultation was Stephen Waddell, ACTRA national executive director, who repeated a long-standing request for Ottawa to hike federal film tax credits for local and foreign producers.

“The government should join provinces in expanding these credits to include ‘all-spend,’ including post-production costs, not just labor costs,” he added.

Waddell last year urged the finance committee to raise the federal film tax credit for foreign producers from 16% to 26%, but stopped short of quantifying any possible federal tax credit hike this time round.

Waddell urged particular support for Canadian film, especially in English Canada “where we have a very desperate situation,” with only 1% of screen time at the local cinema.

At the same time, the ACTRA chief turned aside a suggestion from Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett that the 1980s Canadian tax shelter regime might be resurrected to see dentists and lawyers invest in local film production.

Instead, Waddell urged more generous tax credits for Canadian filmmakers along the SODEQ model in Quebec, which has helped spur local movie production in that province.

While fielding questions from the finance committee, Waddell urged raised funding for the CBC, at the same time he urged that the U.S. game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune be replaced with Canadian shows as lead-ins for the rest of the public broadcaster’s primetime scheduled.