The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) and the Association des producteurs de films et de télévision du Québec (APFTQ) have started negotiating a new actors’ Independent Production Agreement.

“We are optimistic that this round of bargaining will provide significant gains for performers that are balanced with the interests of Canadian producers,” said ACTRA’s chief negotiator and national executive director Stephen Waddell. “Our members have developed a very reasonable package of proposals, and we look forward to discussing them with the Producers,” he continued in a statement Tuesday.

The IPA covers the engagement of performers on all independent film, television and new media production in Canada, except for British Columbia in which province ACTRA’s local, UBCP/ACTRA negotiates a separate collective agreement.

The current IPA expires Dec. 31.

The CMPA and the APFTQ and the Writers Guild of Canada said just Monday that they had ratified a new collective agreement governing screenwriters.

The previous actors’ IPA, ratified in 2009, and effective from Jan. 1 2010 until the end of this December, gave thespians a 2% pay increase a year over its three years.