The Canada Media Fund (CMF) has launched its 2024-27 Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility (EDIA) strategy, with a focus on data collection, research and collaboration to build on its past work.

The three-year plan includes increasing its accessibility support across its programs; a Sector Development Support program with an emphasis on capacity-building, market access and workforce development; increased transparency for data collection; and more inclusion initiatives through partnerships and collaborations.

Joy Loewen, CMF’s VP, growth and inclusion, said the funder is “embedding equity, diversity and inclusion into all aspects of the organization … with the idea that we are going to be building capacity.” She spoke about CMF’s EDIA strategy during a spotlight session at Content Canada, moderated by Kadon Douglas, executive director of BIPOC TV and Film.

The strategy is a “living document,” to ensure CMF can meet the needs of evolving equity-deserving communities.

A key target of the CMF’s most recent strategy is designing and implementing an updated sector development support program, which will encourage including targeted support for racialized creators in international French-speaking markets.

“Within the sector development, within growth and inclusion, there are envelopes to support strategic partnerships that work with organizations to provide international market access into the international communities,” said Loewen.

Another goal is to improve their Persona-ID system by encouraging use by all applicants and sector development participants. According to the strategy document, CMF plans to work with the CRTC and other industry partners for a modernized approach to data collection throughout the industry.

Regarding accessibility, Loewen discussed removing industry jargon to make requirements more understandable.

“One of the things we learned in our consultations was we need plain language,” said Loewen. “We use a lot of acronyms in our industry, a lot of ampersands in place of words. All of those create invisible borders that we’re seeking to address.”

Collaboration is another key aspect of CMF’s EDIA strategy, including working with organizations such as Telefilm and other funding partners to align EDIA strategies.

“This is a strategy rooted in collaboration,” said Loewen. “We had opportunities to speak in person, and virtually, to hundreds of creators to get their initial responses to our draft, and based on that, we created this final version of action.”

Launched in 2021, the goals of CMF’s pilot equity and inclusion strategy included increasing access to CMF programs and using equity and inclusion lenses to inform corporate decisions, strategy and program design. It also included developing approaches to research and data collection that would help the CMF improve later iterations of the program.

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