Executive director of the Writers Guild of Canada Maureen Parker says Canadian screenwriters are like ‘the canary in the coal mine,’ or the first indicator of troubled business. ‘The future is actually very bleak for all of us,’ she says. ‘Writers aren’t working and it will trickle through the system.’ Parker says the danger is a direct result of the decline in indigenous, live-action drama production.

‘In 1999, we had 12 hour-long dramas; currently we have five,’ she laments. ‘It’s a very important thing to us.’ Parker says the decline can be attributed to three factors: distributors are not interested in Canadian drama unless they have international presales; the cumulative effects of years of cuts at the CBC; and the CRTC’s revised television policy, ‘which had the effect of diminishing the place of drama within Canadian content requirements.’

With 1,600 members, the WGC is anxiously awaiting the appointment of a new CRTC chair to renew its lobbying efforts aimed at reviving Canadian drama production. ‘We’re hoping we’ll have some impact on them,’ Parker says. ‘It’s very important that the industry produce drama. It’s how we tell our stories.’

Currently, Parker is focused on the renewal of the Canadian Television Fund, which she describes as ‘a requirement to maintain and support an indigenous industry.’ She says the CTF must be renewed before the WGC goes forward with other lobbying efforts, which include further development of direct broadcaster/writer relationships, and attempts to stem the brain drain [further aggravated by the decline in indigenous drama] by ensuring ‘the point system is finally addressed.’

‘We have to bump the six-out-of-10-point system to eight-out-of-10, so that a Canadian writer becomes mandatory [for all Canadian productions],’ she says.

In terms of Canada’s new feature film policy, Parker prefers to focus on the positives. ‘After years of strenuous lobbying on our front, and also by SARTEC [WGC’s sister group for French-language screenwriters in Quebec], there has been a new program in place for the last year – [Telefilm Canada’s] Screenwriting Assistance Program. It has an envelope of $2.1 million annually to give directly to screenwriters. And a number of WGC members have applied for and received these funds. So it’s a success. And believe me, this year we’re hanging on to all that we can.’

Another WGC success stems from its last Independent Production Agreement with the CFTPA and APFTQ, which brought animation writing into the deal. Parker calls the 43 animated half-hour series in production ‘a godsend’ for Canadian screenwriters. The collective agreement, which took effect Nov. 1, 2000, is set to expire on Dec. 31, 2002.

‘One of the things coming up in 2002,’ Parker explains, ‘is focusing on gathering proposals and negotiating a renewal to [this] Independent Production Agreement.’

-www.writersguildofcanada.com