(Toronto-based writer-producer Steve Lucas’ credits include Diplomatic Immunity and The Champagne Safari. An advisor at the cfc’s TV Drama Workshops ’94 and ’96 and a Feature Film Project advisory board member, he also serves as a national delegate from Ontario to the wgc’s Writers Forum. He invariably enjoys his trip to l.a.)

So there we were, sitting around a lunch table at the Canadian Film Centre, having a nice chat over our salad and quiche when somebody – I’d like to think it wasn’t me – started talking about ‘the plight of the screenwriter in Canada.’ So much for being upbeat, I thought.

Dwindling development dollars, decreasing indigenous production, limited access to American shows – chances are, you’ve heard it before.

If you have any idea what to do about it, however, I really wish you’d been able to join Wayne Clarkson, Tecca Crosby and Katherine Emslie (from the cfc), Maureen Parker, Jack Blum and me (from the Writers Guild of Canada) that day for lunch. Because while we had no trouble clearing up the small misunderstanding which had arisen between our two organizations, the larger challenges now facing Canadian screenwriters were mostly beyond us.

Short of packing it in, the obvious solution, of course, is to leave – which more and more Canadian screenwriters are doing. As Vancouver-based writer Hart Hanson told Playback this past June: ‘Every time a group of writers gets together, the subject of whether we should move to Los Angeles comes up.’

Seventeen percent of the wgc’s membership now lives in l.a. u.s. residents now earn 30% of all gross writing fees earned under the guild’s Independent Production Agreement. In terms of new members, l.a. is the guild’s fastest-growing region.

There are other, less obvious ways to leave, of course. If you really want to cut short a conversation with a senior Canadian screenwriter, just tell him or her that your new project is intended solely – or, even, primarily – for the Canadian marketplace. If the slim production possibilities of that particular proposition don’t prompt him or her to hear a beep on his or her other line, believe me, nothing will.

With so many people here making travel plans, you’ve got to wonder where the next generation of Canadian film stories will come from. Good question. Kazakhstan, perhaps? Maybe the Taiwanese will be interested. Or maybe there just won’t be any. How about that for a concept?

For those of us at that luncheon table and, quite possibly, for you as well, the implications are vaguely unnerving. If the Canadian film and television industry continues to wind down, what happens to the Canadian Film Centre? How long can you go on training people to be part of something that no longer exists? A name change is always possible, I guess – call it the American Film Centre and just carry on, business as usual? – but somehow that d’esn’t seem quite right.

Then, too, there’s the Writers Guild of Canada, which Emslie informed us, is the national film association to which more Centre grads belong than any other. If there’s no Canadian work to speak of, how worried is anybody supposed to get about ‘negotiating and administering collective agreements that set out minimum rates, terms and conditions of work?’

Anyway, you get the picture. If the Canadian film and television industry continues to go the way of the railroad, a lot of us suddenly become supporting characters in an absurdist play: working hard and long on projects which, in fact, have already ended.

So what do we do?

We could always start addressing the situation openly, I guess. Although I know that talk only g’es so far, the past year’s public silence – and the uncertainty which has accompanied it – is a big part of the reason so many Canadian film craftspeople, not all of them writers, are heading on out.

In August, the radically downsized ofdc finally broke its news: no more direct funding for development and production; a new provincial labor-expenditure-based tax credit instead. Okay, so now we know. What are the other cultural agencies planning to do, I wonder? What about the broadcasters, the distribution companies and the large production companies? However disheartening their announcements may prove to be, it would be helpful if the representatives of these organizations could come forward and clear the air.

We might also want to remind prospective emigrants that l.a. is not necessarily Screenwriting Valhalla. Yes, you can make a ton more money there. The place has a drive, a thrust, an intensity we can’t even spell, much less match – plus, it’s sunny and warm.

The one thing l.a. isn’t, though, funnily enough, is here. Inevitably, a Canadian screenwriter working stateside is going to be called upon to write about a place, a people and a culture that are not his or her own – a tall writing order, when you think about it, and just one of many to be filled if the writer is ever to regain the control he or she enjoyed (and likely took for granted) here at home.

At the risk of alienating my 1,200 brothers and sisters in the guild, we might also want to take better advantage of the development-funding opportunities that, though diminished, continue to exist here. As anyone involved in Canadian ‘content analysis’ will tell you, the vast majority of our written material falls well wide of the mark.

For every exemplary Double Happiness, Thirty-two Short Films About Glenn Gould or Boys of St. Vincent, there seem to be hundreds, maybe even thousands, of pieces of writing work that just fly mysteriously past in the night.

Whether we can more consistently achieve screenwriting excellence through harder work, more collegial effort (or less collegial effort), or, simply, stronger film ideas, somehow or other we have to raise the bar. Audiences need to be given more reasons to love the shows we do. If we folded up tent tomorrow, I’d like to think that people here would care. As things stand, I have my doubts.

With the government-subsidy system ebbing, it would be great if the private sector could somehow be encouraged to step in and pick up the slack. The sector’s support of the cfc’s (and many other) training programs is aces. fund’s generously upped writing grants are also a boost. But more money needs to go into development – particularly, the development of long-form dramas.

I hate to break it to everyone but $36,000, which is scale for a feature film script, may sound like a lot of money and may also be insanely difficult to raise, but it d’es not even begin to cover the time and effort required to write a good feature film script. The same g’es for current mow rates. Will the private networks get more involved? Again: what about the specialty channels, the large production and distribution companies? Or has everybody simply lost faith (not to mention, too much money) in these areas in recent years?

Finally, on those all-too-rare occasions when excellent writing work d’es somehow emerge, it would be genuinely inspiring if those responsible could be rewarded the old-fashioned way – namely, with production financing for their next project. As actor Chuck Shamata remarked a generation ago: ‘In Canada, after every success, you have to make a comeback.’

Again and again, on the West Coast, on the East Coast and in Central Canada, we continue to see and hear and experience the truth of that statement. When we don’t suffer from a lack of writing talent here, we – perversely – suffer a lack of respect for writing talent. It’s insulting – and just one more reason why so many people up and leave.

In line with this, I’d like to conclude with the announcement that – either despite or because of all the above (or, quite possibly, both) – the wgc will soon be holding its first annual awards show to celebrate excellence in Canadian screenwriting.

This coming April, from 90 shows produced within its jurisdiction and nominated by its members, the guild will also honor the past year’s top 10 pieces of Canadian film, television and radio writing.

As mentioned, this will mark our first awards show. It could also mark our last one here. In coming years, you never know – it may make more sense to hold the WGC Awards in southern California. For information about the awards, call the wgc at (416) 979-7907.