Suddenly, a swarm of locusts darkening the skies over the Westin Ottawa seems entirely plausible.

An ACTRA strike threatening summer shoots and a besieged Canadian Television Fund are preoccupying the 600-or-so producers preparing for the CFTPA’s Prime Time 2007 conference (Feb. 21-23). Now more than ever, political leadership is their lobbying cry.

‘The government needs to say this is a desirable industry and will support it,’ says Michael Donovan, cofounder and executive producer at Halifax Film, echoing others in a production sector feeling unheard and unloved by the current Conservative government.

Of gravest concern is that cable companies Shaw Communications and Videotron have halted their financial participation to the CTF, in the latest calamity to befall an already beleaguered industry.

‘The fact that Shaw and Videotron seem like they can get away with this is quite scary,’ says Jon Slan, president of Toronto-based Slanted Wheel Entertainment.

For their part, the feds have renewed their own annual $100 million CTF contribution for the next two years, and Heritage Minister Bev Oda has come out telling the dissenting cablers to continue making their monthly payments. She is expected to have more to say at Prime Time’s opening night reception.

Producers also privately express tremendous frustration with ongoing ACTRA-CFTPA/APFTQ negotiations that resemble a B-grade Kabuki dance that may not secure a new contract for Canadian actors anytime soon.

Canadian producers have partially insulated themselves from these challenges by signing ACTRA continuation letters – allowing them to use ACTRA talent by agreeing to the union’s 5% wage and 2% benefits boost requests – and diversifying away from an embattled Canadian market.

Glen Salzman, CEO of Montreal-based Cineflix, says he depends increasingly on international financing, rather than CTF equity, to get projects off the ground.

‘We only have CTF money in a small percentage of projects. So [CTF instability] is not a huge negative for us,’ he says.

Meanwhile, the ACTRA strike will have a greater impact in terms of what Hollywood projects chose to avoid shooting in Canada or bypass the rest of the country in favor of B.C., which is ruled by a separate Master Production Agreement set to expire at the end of March.

If anything, fewer Americans on the ground in Toronto and Montreal have left more studio and post-production facilities available to domestic producers.

‘I don’t like working under conditions where people are on strike. But it’s a good time to make a low-budget film. We have an excellent crew and the studio space is generous,’ says Darius Films producer Nicholas Tabarrok, who signed an ACTRA continuation letter to get the cameras rolling on the comedy Hank & Mike (starring Joe Mantegna and Wes Bentley), the first feature to shoot in Ontario this year.

The current direction of production in Canada will become more clear when CFTPA president and CEO Guy Mayson and APFTQ chief Claire Samson unveil annual production volume numbers from the Profile 2007 report on the morning of Feb. 22, as Prime Time gets underway.

Casting some light on the state of things, Mayson teases that ‘It is an encouraging Profile that is more optimistic than the past few years. Production in 2005/06 was good.’

Meanwhile, figures recently released by the Ontario Media Development Corporation illustrate the continuing downward slide in U.S. location shooting in the province.

In Ontario, foreign film and TV shoots left $338.7 million in production spending from 32 projects in 2006, compared with $458.8 million from 41 shoots in 2005, representing a cash drop of 26%.

But on the sunny side, increased homegrown Ontario film and TV production helped offset the decline, with 206 indigenous projects worth $549.4 million completed last year, compared to 150 projects generating $475.1 million in the previous cycle, for a gain of 16%.

Overall, the region saw 238 projects worth $888.1 million shoot locally last year, compared to 191 projects worth $933.8 million in 2005, for a cash drop of 5%.

B.C. Film Commission numbers for 2006 have yet to be released, but local jurisdictions report Hollywood film and TV shoots falling like manna from the skies.

The Vancouver suburb of Surrey reports that Hollywood shoots left $700,000 behind in 2006, more than tripling activity from 2005.

In a statement, Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts said the jump in location shooting, including the Danny DeVito/Matthew Broderick comedy Deck the Halls, reflects the ‘overall state of the B.C. industry and its desire to provide outstanding customer service.’

Calls to the Montreal Film & Television Commission and the Quebec Film & Television Council seeking numbers were not returned.

Halifax Film’s Donovan argues the industry’s current woes are not insurmountable, but that they only require a coordinated response from the production community and a level of attention from Ottawa not seen in recent years.

‘Knowledge-based industries can be a critical part of Canada’s future. But is Canada only about mining and oil and gas? If so, please serve notice now,’ he says.

www.cftpa.ca

With files from Norma Reveler