The Canada Media Fund (CMF) has released an initial snapshot of its demographic data collected through the Persona-ID system.

The 2022-23 Demographic Report measures the representation of key roles from funded projects under CMF during the fiscal year.

The Persona-ID system allows individuals to voluntarily self-identify their demographic in funding applications, enabling the CMF to measure representation of key roles and ownership in its programs. The CMF said the report represents a single year of data, and therefore does not “explicitly identify inequities, data gaps, or underrepresentation.”

The CMF defines key roles in linear as those including all paid positions for writer, director, showrunner, producer and executive producer roles. For interactive, these include producer, executive producer, director, senior programmer and designer roles. Approximately 83% of all key roles reported at application for the year included a Persona-ID number. However, only 67% of all shareholders declared their Persona-ID number, which “had an impact on the results, making the ownership data less precise to analyze.” A total of 5,877 key roles and 1,631 shareholders were reported out of the 1,204 funded application across linear and interactive.

For 2022-23, the CMF said that a third of all key roles reported across the funder’s linear programs identified with at least one diverse community. Nearly 39% said they do not identify with a diverse community, while about 11% said they prefer not to answer, and 18% did not participate.

The CMF defines “diverse community” as individuals who are Indigenous (First Nations, Métis, and Inuit), members of racialized communities, 2SLGBTQ+, and persons with disabilities.

Racialized communities — Black (or Afro-Canadian), East Asian, Latin American Middle Eastern or North African, South Asian, Southeast Asian and multiracial — accounted for the largest proportion of diverse community key roles at 18%. First Nations, Métis, and Inuit combined made up 7% of all reported key roles.

Individuals who identified as 2SLGBTQ+ represented 8% of all key roles in linear. Persons with disabilities accounted for 4% of all key roles.

In terms of gender, 40% of all key creative and production roles across the funder’s linear programs, including in the performance envelope, were identified as being held by women. Nearly 37% identified as men, 1.5% identified as gender diverse, 3.9% preferred not to answer, and 17.5% did not participate.

In interactive, nearly 50% of all key roles identified with one or more diverse communities, with about a quarter identifying as part of a racialized community. The report noted that the representation of Indigenous Peoples in interactive “can be considered low for this year, with 3% key roles.”

Almost 20% of key roles in interactive identified as 2SLGBTQ+, with a majority identifying as bisexual or pansexual. Individuals with disabilities held 10% of key roles.

A total of 31% of all key roles were identified as being held by women, with 45.9% identifying as men and 4% as gender diverse, while 1.9% declined to answer and 16.9% did not participate.

The CMF said in the report that it aims to build on this report to identify trends, reassess measurements, and set year-by-year benchmarks “to track our success.” It also intends to encompass the Sector Development Program in future data collection.

Shareholders are also required to provide their Persona-ID starting in 2023-24, which CMF said should allow for greater “accuracy and insight.”

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