The Canada Media Fund has expanded support for environmental sustainability and introduced a new Narrative Positioning Policy as it unveils the budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year.

The funder said it will invest an estimated $365.8 million across its various programs, noting that the total does not account for the additional $40 million in support announced by the federal government last week.

Approximately $20 million has been allocated for 2023-24 to support French-language programs and content from underrepresented voices, according to the 2023 federal budget.

The 2023-24 CMF guidelines do not include any new programs, but outline the new policy and additional changes to existing programs, which will “ensure we are able to hit the ground running once legislative and regulatory aspects are settled,” according to president and CEO Valerie Creighton in a statement. The pending Bill C-11, meant to modernize the Broadcasting Act, is currently awaiting passage at the Senate following a series of amendments.

Among the CMF’s most widely impactful changes are new measures around environmental sustainability. Beginning this fiscal year, the funder will now count “reasonable costs” related to sustainability practices as eligible costs for both the Convergent and Experimental stream programs.

Additionally, live-action projects applying to the Convergent programs that hit a certain cost threshold must track their carbon emissions via a carbon calculator. For scripted drama, the threshold is $800,000 per hour; for children and youth, and variety and performing arts projects, it’s $750,000; and for documentary, it’s $400,000.

The CMF has also introduced the Narrative Positioning Policy in all of its Convergent and Experimental stream programs. The policy aims to ensure that any projects with “key storylines, main characters, or subject matter related to sovereignty- and equity-seeking communities should only be made by individuals who are well-positioned to tell the story.”

The CMF defines “well-positioned” as the participation of a member of an impacted community or communities, or the demonstration of “comprehensive measures” to ensure the content will be made “responsibly, thoughtfully and without harm.” The measures are meant to indicate how involved members of the community are in the content creation process.

Examples of comprehensive measures provided by CMF include hiring community members to key creative and technical roles, consultations with the communities at all stages of production “through a diversity and inclusion plan and/or community engagement plan,” or “sharing beneficial ownership of IP and financial control.” Compliance with the policy is a condition of funding, according to the CMF website.

The policy also includes a Narrative Positioning Statement for the Selective programs in the Convergent and Experimental streams, including the English and French POV programs, Diverse Languages, Early-Stage Development, Innovation & Experimentation, Commercial Projects and Prototyping. It will replace the Producer’s Statement previously required for the Pilot Program for Racialized Communities and the Indigenous Program.

Selective programs under the Convergent stream will also see new funding triggers in the fiscal year. Licence fees from “foreign scheduled broadcasters” and financial contributions from eligible Canadian distributors will count toward the licence fee threshold for the Indigenous, POV and Diverse Languages programs, as well as the Pilot Program for Racialized Communities. A foreign scheduled broadcaster is not considered as a “digital distributor,” according to program guidelines, and eligibility is determined on a case-by-case basis.

A full breakdown of the annual budget and additional changes are available on the CMF website.

“Across 2023-2024, the CMF will strive to provide as much stability as possible while adapting our funding programs to meet the evolving demands of Canada’s audiovisual industries,” said Creighton. “Amidst disruption and uncertainty, we are pleased that our overall program budget matches our last fiscal year and the funding levels of the overwhelming majority of CMF programs remain virtually untouched.”

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