Looking for full status before the Ontario Labour Relations Board to resolve contract disputes, local unions and guilds on Monday gave their support to a private members bill in the Ontario legislature.

Proposed legislation for the Labour Stability in the Film and Television Industry Act, introduced Monday by NDP MPP Peter Tabuns, aims to ensure disputes involving collective agreements for ACTRA and other industry guilds can be resolved at the Ontario labour tribunal.

“The proposed legislation codifies the practices we have used for many years,” Ron Haney, CEO and executive director of the Directors Guild of Canada-Ontario said Monday.

Those practices have been disputed in the past, most noticeably during the 2007 Canadian actors strike when indie producers disputed whether members of ACTRA were legitimately represented by a union.

The then CFTPA, now the CMPA, contended ACTRA members were independent contractors, and went to court to seek an injunction against what it considered an illegal work stoppage.

ACTRA countered that it was a trade union engaged in collective bargaining on behalf of its members, and ultimately secured a decision by the Superior Court of Justice to dismiss the CFTPA’s injunction application.

A representative of the Ontario Labour Relations Board eventually acted as a neutral mediator to help resolve the work stoppage.

Representatives of ACTRA Toronto, DGC-Ontario, Nabet CEP local 700 and the Toronto Musicians Association insisted they have negotiated collective agreements with Canadian producer for years.

As such, long-standing “ambiguity” about the legal status of the Ontario film and television industry should end so that industry unions and guilds no longer face undue court costs.

“This bill would bring an end to that and allow us to get on with what we do best: grow the Ontario film and television industry,” Heather Allin, president of ACTRA Toronto, said.