The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) should integrate accessibility needs into every facet of the industry, Disability Screen Office (DSO) executive director Winnie Luk (pictured) told commissioners on Monday (Nov. 27) at the start of the second week of public hearings on modernizing the regulatory system under federal Bill C-11, a.k.a the Online Streaming Act.

As part of that the DSO called for “a content production funding framework that builds accessibility into every aspect – from the very beginning of the creative process to distribution and exhibition,” said Luk.

“Accessibility should not be an ad-hoc item, [but] rather an integrated part of the production design and planning process from development, production, to post-production and marketing,” she said. “The industry, from broadcasters and streamers, to funders and independent producers are simply not prioritizing accessibility.”

Luk called for amended criteria for Certified Independent Production Funds (CIPFs) “to set specific and rigorous standards of accessibility so CIPFs can align with the Accessible Canada Act and the commission’s own Broadcast[ing] Regulatory Policy of 2016.”

The DSO would also like to see “new, independent funds to address gaps in disability representation, participation and accessibility in the broadcast market” and “that empowers disabled creatives,” as Luk outlined. “There is no CIPF doing that right now.”

She said the CRTC should create “a specialized inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility stream within initial base contributions.”

The CRTC should also consider fostering diversity in the film production sector, said Tonya Williams, founder and executive director of the Reelworld Screen Institute “There are very few production companies owned or run by Indigenous or racialized people [and] very few Canadian producers from Indigenous, Black and racialized communities,” said Williams.

She called for both greater clarity on funding-related definitions, such as “underserved communities,” which Williams said comprises “everyone except white, cis [cisgender] men” and more transparent data on “who are the top people” in producing content, or “are we still only using diverse people at the very low end for some crew parts or as extras?”

As part of its pitch in the Path Forward hearings, Reelworld proposed a wage subsidy program, which it would oversee, that would provide “top production companies the opportunity to hire future producers from diverse backgrounds,” said Williams, who noted that her organization received $1.4 million from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario to pioneer a three-year Black Entrepreneurs Program to train Black casting directors, agents, managers and film producers.

“Adaptability” and “flexibility” in a new contribution framework that does “no harm” or “inadvertently pit domestic undertakings against foreign undertakings” was the focus for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) in its presentation to the CRTC on Monday.

John Lewis, IATSE international VP and director of Canadian affairs, told commissioners of a need to establish “an inclusive definition of what makes a production ‘Canadian’ that can guide the development of the framework, not follow it.”

Isabelle Lecompte, IATSE’s Montreal-based international representative, warned that a mandatory initial base contribution agreement, in the form of a direct payment to one or a small number of traditional agencies or funds, “risks disincentivizing foreign undertakings from producing in Canada,” which she noted provide “vital contributions” to the Canadian industry “by creating meaningful employment opportunities” the international alliance’s Canadian members.

The other risk, she said, is the result of “challenging cross-currents” where other jurisdictions are “strengthening their foreign production incentives even as global content expenditures are starting to decrease.”

A joint proposal from the Toronto-based Canadian Film Centre, the National Screen Institute (NSI) in Winnipeg and Montreal’s film, television and interactive media training centre, L’institut national de l’image et du son, said the CRTC should create a fund that would support developing the Canadian talent that provide the Canadian content for productions.

All three organizations would administer a new Canadian Audiovisual and Immersive Training Fund that would receive contributions from Canadian and foreign broadcasters and fulfill, as NSI CEO Joy Loewen explained at the hearing, the CRTC’s mandate under section 11.1(b) of the Online Streaming Act to “make regulations respecting expenditures to be made by persons carrying on broadcasting undertakings for the purposes of… training Canadian creators of audio or audiovisual programs for broadcasting by broadcasting undertakings.”

Loewen said that the new fund would also “address the industry’s call for at least 20% of initial base contributions to be directed to CIPFs,” and echo the request from such key stakeholders as the Canadian Media Producers Association and the Directors Guild of Canada “for enhanced production and training opportunities for underrepresented creators in Canada.”

The Path Forward hearings are scheduled to continue until Dec. 8.