Promoting Canadian content through identifying the key players in a production was a major topic on the fifth day of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications (CRTC) Cancon definition hearings in Gatineau, Que.

Adding the position of showrunner to the certification-points system “would be a gamechanger,” screenwriter and showrunner Bruce Smith, president of the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC), told commissioners on Wednesday (May 21).

“This is one of the most important steps the Commission could take to ensure that creative control of series television is in the hands of Canadians,” he said, and “fundamentally places writing at the centre of the creative process, where it belongs.”

In its written submission to the Commission, the WGC recommended a Canadian residency requirement for the positions of showrunner and screenwriter. “The inclusion of foreign online undertakings in the Canadian broadcasting system should not result in the unintended consequence of increasing Canada’s talent drain by incentivizing more Canadian creators to leave the country in order to get the attention of California-based development executives.”

However, Isabelle Lecompte, international representative with IATSE (the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts) in Canada told the Commission that the role of showrunner only exists in television “and in many TV productions, the showrunner’s responsibilities overlap with existing roles like writer, producer or director.”

Were the CRTC to add the position as a key creative, she said that it should be optional and only apply to television. “Since film productions will not have showrunner points available to them, they should be able to achieve creation with fewer points than television productions.”

IATSE proposed a “more inclusive model” recognizing “the full spectrum of key creative roles” within production, according to John Lewis, international VP and director of Canadian affairs. “Positions like sound mixers, costume and hair department heads, and visual effects leads,” he said.

“It’s not just about the lead actor or the screenwriter. It’s about the people who light the scene, build the sets, style the wardrobe and shape the sound,” added Lewis. “These professionals give a program its texture, its tone, and often its emotional impact – and in many cases, they’re what make the story feel Canadian.”

Glenn Cockburn, founder and president of Meridian Artists talent agency, said that while the behind-the-scenes creatives “will contribute to the Canadian-ness” of programs, “they do not have the authority to ensure it.”

That, as he told commissioners, will come from the “critical creative positions” of writer, director and lead performers who, along with the producer, “form the leadership of a Canadian program.”

“With final approvals for the elements of a Canadian program now being decided by foreign corporations, we must ensure their executives only have Canadians to choose from,” said Cockburn.

In her presentation, Joan Jenkinson, co-founder and chief executive officer of the Black Screen Office (BSO), addressed the topic of including cultural elements within the certification framework. She said that while Canadian producers want to work with talent from such countries as Jamaica and Nigeria, she cautioned that if the flexibility being proposed is “too broad, it might inadvertently shift focus away from Canadian Black talent and towards the larger Black talent pool in the U.S.”

Jenkinson also said that foreign streamers need to commit to spending requirements for Canadian programs of national interest (PNI).

“While they may be commissioning Canadian content now, we can’t be sure that will continue unless there is a requirement,” she said, adding that changes to diversity, equity and inclusion policies in the U.S. “could lead to stories that don’t reflect Canadian values.”

The BSO proposed an equity-based Canadian programming expenditure – starting at 30% – in which broadcasters and streamers would be required to spend money on programming from members of Black, racialized, 2SLGBTQIA+ and disabled communities.

Also in its written submission, the WGC said that it “stridently and unequivocally disagrees” with the Commission’s preliminary view that the current approach to PNI is “no longer needed” in supporting Canadian dramas and documentaries.

And “no … AI-generated material cannot and should not be considered Canadian content.” Artificial intelligence “machines do not have citizenship,” the WGC’s submission noted. “They are not human beings.”

Peggy Tabet, VP of regulatory and environmental affairs at Quebecor Media, spoke of the realities of competing with foreign online companies – which, in the case of its TVA Group French-language television network, has resulted in the loss of more than 650 jobs and over $36 million in TV ad revenue since 2022.

“The elimination of archaic and superfluous requirements [on traditional broadcasters] would allow us to build a fully Canadian system that is strong, agile and can innovate – rather than a system dominated by foreign interests,” she said, noting the urgency. “We no longer enjoy the luxury of time.”

As the WGC’s assistant executive director Neal McDougall summarized: “The U.S. tech giants who have said how much they want to work with you, but who oppose everything you do, who take your decisions to court, propose nothing substantive of their own, and now have bowed out of this hearing, are fighting their battle for continued American dominance of Canadian screens.”

Image courtesy of CPAC. Pictured (L-R): The Writer’s Guild of Canada’s Neal McDougall, Victoria Shen, Bruce Smith, Amanda Smith and Anthony Q. Farrell