In what is being framed as a ‘catastrophic’ blow to Canadian TV drama, producers have been left picking their jaws up off the sidewalk after a full 64% of CTF applications were turned down earlier this month. This, following a year of hand-wringing over the state of Canadian drama in the wake of declines in new programming and a stall in production growth in 2002.

Could things get worse? Well, you should probably assume at this point that they will.

The federal government – which for many months would not commit to renewing its contribution to the CTF – dropped a bomb on domestic producers after it cut its annual $100-million contribution by $25 million. The drop in funds is not so much the problem as the timing. The cuts were announced as part of the Feb. 18 federal budget, six days after the CTF application deadline. According to CFTPA president and CEO Elizabeth McDonald, this threw the entire process out of whack, with producers and broadcasters mistakenly basing their application requests on the wrong totals.

This speaks directly to one of the major problems facing frustrated producers and broadcasters. The planning of a series or MOW and piecing together financing can take upwards of 18 months. The chaos of the last few weeks puts into high relief the need for consistency in the funding regime. It is virtually impossible to make the necessary plans if you don’t know what is coming around the corner.

Many broadcast and production executives are calling for a complete revamping of the system. Some have articulated a need for a single funding source, while others are floating the idea of creating individual broadcaster envelopes, an option that puts the decisions as to how money is divvied up in the hands of the people who have a vested interest in the success of their programming: the broadcasters themselves.

But such rethinking will take time, and will be of little help in infusing the current crop of shows that look to be teetering on the edge of oblivion with needed cash.

The CFTPA continues to hold out hope that lobbying and public pressure on the feds will return funding to 2002 levels, but according to Finance Minister John Manley’s office, the government is actually moving in the other direction and hopes to be out of the funding game within the next couple of years.

More likely, the best chance to get more federal backing lies in convincing Finance to match the 12% tax credit on domestic content production to the new 16% level of the Production Services Tax Credit. But to make it work, the feds have to first deliver on their Budget 2000 promises, including a review of certain restrictive elements such as the 48% cap on eligible production costs (not imposed on the PSAT). In practical terms, the real value of the domestic credit to producers is as low as 3% or 4%.

The feds also must eliminate various clauses related to copyright and ownership, which producers say impede them from accessing more international production financing.

But this will still not make up for the loss of the $25 million and certainly not for the loss of $100 million should the feds pull out of the CTF all together. The time to develop a contingency plan and to come up with viable partnerships and alternate funding sources is now.