On the ninth and final day in this round of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications (CRTC) Cancon definition hearings in Gatineau, Que., commissioners heard from the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) on Tuesday (May 27) and the concern its 7,000 members have about the discussion surrounding the elimination of rules regarding programs of national interest (PNI).

The DGC notes that rules and regulatory measures for PNI content are needed now, more than ever “in the fiercely competitive and constantly evolving [Canadian] broadcasting ecosystem,” said Dave Forget, executive director of the DGC, proposing a “modernized and streamlined approach to PNI regulation,” starting with a recommended annual contribution of “8.5% of revenues from broadcasters and online undertakings that earn more than $25 million a year.”

He explained that the framework would come with a 25% expenditure credit supporting what Forget characterized as “the hardest to produce PNI content,” namely original Canadian dramas and long-form documentaries. An additional 25% expenditure credit would apply to programs that “serve key public-policy objectives of the Broadcasting Act, such as original content from Indigenous, official language minority community, Black and racialized creators, along with those made for and by people living with disabilities and those who identify as 2SLGBTQI+.”

Forget said that a recent study commissioned by the DGC by creative-industries-analysis firm, Nordicity, showed that an annual 8.5% PNI obligation would generate as much as $300 million, noting that “if broadcasters and streamers make maximum use of these incentive credits, their PNI obligation would be in the neighbourhood of 5.6%.

Canadian Screen Award-winning director and DGC president Warren Sonoda said that “without regulatory policy, market forces will not support” the production of Canadian and Indigenous PNI content: “They simply won’t get made.”

He said that if the PNI rules are removed, broadcasters will likely invest in “lower-risk programming, such as lifestyle, reality and sports programming.”

“CRTC data shows that Canadian broadcasters already spend 2.5 to 3 times more on non-Canadian dramas and documentaries than they do on Canadian PNI content,” said Sonoda.
On a modernized framework for defining Canadian programs, Mohawk filmmaker Tracey Deer, who serves as first VP of the DGC, said that the director and screenwriter “must be Canadian,” as they are the “lead authors of all audiovisual works.”

The Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC) commissioned its own study by Nordicity that revealed a 38% decrease in spending on long-form documentaries in Canada between 2013 and 2023.

“This decline represents a loss of $60 million in real dollars,” said Min Sook Lee, board chair of the DOC, who characterized documentaries as “at-risk content.”

The DOC called for an overall Canadian programming expenditures (CPE) obligation for Canadian broadcasters and foreign streamers, along with maintaining PNI rules and including minimum requirements for Canadian feature-length documentary productions.

DOC proposed a seven-point system for documentary content in which six points (two each for director and screenwriter; one each for director of photography, editor and music composer) would be required for a program to be certified as Canadian.

Image courtesy CPAC. Pictured (L-R): Samuel Bischoff, DGC national policy director; Tracey Deer DGC national VP; and Dave Forget, DGC national executive director