With the NHL hockey season officially on ice, Canadian sports broadcasters are turning to Swedish hockey, vintage games, NASCAR, the NBA and any number of other tricks to stem the loss of ad dollars and to round out schedules that, for this year and perhaps next, have been left vacant by intractable hockey players and team owners.

Vancouver: On Feb. 11, B.C.’s Ministry of Small Business and Economic Development issued a self-congratulatory release about new business generated by the boosting of the service and domestic tax credits, announced on Jan. 20.

The seventh Soirée des Jutra was a huge coup for Francis Leclerc’s Mémoires affectives. The intimate auteur film produced by Barbara Shrier of Montreal’s Palomar Films won four of its five nominations at the Quebec film awards, including best film, best director, best picture editing and best actor for lead Roy Dupuis.

With six out of the 13 commissioner spots at the CRTC now vacant, some for more than two years, industry-watchers are starting to wonder if the short-handed federal regulator will be able to keep up with its workload and when, or if, the Prime Minister’s Office will get around to hiring some new blood.

Richard Chevolleau took best male performance for his guest spot on The Eleventh Hour, at ACTRA Toronto’s annual awards ceremony held

Richard Stursberg, CBC’s executive VP in charge of English television, has put drama at the center of his mandate to reform the national broadcaster. But to make significant inroads, he’ll need money, and lots of it.

Bell Globemedia and Rogers Media have revealed some of their plans for covering the 2010 and 2012 Olympics, promising round-the-clock English and French coverage of the Summer and Winter Games, totaling some 4,000 hours, while also making good on an offer to share coverage with Radio-Canada.

The Hot Sheet tracks Canadian box-office results for the week of Feb. 11-17 and television ratings for the week of Feb. 14-20.

CTV’S Corner Gas passed another ratings record on Feb. 21 when its audience approached two million.

One week into its release by Christal Films, Francois Bouvier’s Maman Last Call has jumped into the number-one spot on the Canadian box-office chart.

Mid-season changes to the schedules of Radio-Canada, TVA and TQS have set the stage for ratings showdowns among the top broadcasters in Quebec, with the French half of CBC looking to hang on to Monday night while also staking new territory on Sundays.

Vancouver: Veteran mediator Vince Ready has been named by the B.C. government’s Ministry of Labour to hammer out the final and outstanding details on the Tysoe Report, first presented a year ago. Ready’s industrial inquiry, which was announced Feb. 7, will present its findings April 1.