* Andre Barro (Insectia) has joined Montreal’s Cineflix Productions as executive producer – vice-president, effective at MIP-TV in April. Barro comes to Cineflix from Pixcom, Montreal, where he was VP international affairs and executive producer….

Winnipeg: A new source of marketing assistance for Canadian producers has opened up with the announcement of the NSI Global Marketing Program….

Vancouver: The CRTC, capitulating to the will of the federal cabinet and Heritage Minister Sheila Copps, issued a call for bids Feb. 28 for an over-the-air ethnic television station in the Greater Vancouver market. …

Montreal: Telefilm Canada has announced support for nine English and two French projects as part of its new Low Budget Independent Feature Film Assistance Program. …

CTV is launching a Canadian Documart on June 13, as part of the 22nd Banff Television Festival. The program, adopted from the Australian Documart, will distribute prize money, donated by CTV, to producers pitching the top three projects. For first prize,…

Montreal: L’Union des Artistes president Pierre Curzi is calling for long-term "stability" in the $20-million Quebec dubbing industry. The performers guild has asked the Quebec government to put the issue on the table in current negotiations aimed at renewing the Valenti-Bacon…

Winnipeg: Heater was the big winner at this year’s Blizzard Awards, presented March 2-3 in Winnipeg….

Pierre Falardeau’s 15 Fevrier 1839 is this year’s opening film for Toronto’s Cinefranco film festival….

It was passed on by distributors and rejected by all the major Canadian film festivals, but Andrew Ainsworth’s first feature Too Much Sex slipped up through the Hollywood cracks to win best foreign film at the Malibu Film Festival in Santa…

The news is filled with reports of an economic slowdown in both Canada and the United States. Add to that the uncertainty caused by the looming strikes amongst U.S. writers and actors, and many companies are pondering whether they’ll be able to maintain their staff at the current levels.
In order to avoid potentially costly lawsuits, before you terminate any employees, you should ensure that you conduct the termination in accordance with all legal requirements and take into consideration the realities and sensitivities of the employees being terminated.

Halifax’s Salter Street Films cannot seem to keep itself out of the news lately. Following its sale last month to Toronto-based Alliance Atlantis Communications, Salter has announced it is buddying up with another Toronto company, Infopreneur. Together the two will develop a television version of Infopreneur’s Web hit Chilly Beach, retaining all of the Canadianisms that have made the animated property so popular.

Montreal: Documentary producer Catherine Mullins of Green Lion Productions is in production on the Sony HD shoot A Bridge to Mars (working title), licensed by Discovery Canada, TVOntario, Knowledge Network, SCN and Canal D. The house is also in development on A Community at the Crossroads – As seen through the eyes of Dr. Jane McGillivray, a one-hour doc for the Women’s Television Network on the crisis among the Innu children of Sheshatshiu in Labrador.