Francophone producers criticize CTF’s new criteria before Parliamentary committee

The Canadian Television Fund (CTF) finds itself under the scrutiny of a Parliamentary committee after minority-language producers complained to politicians about the level of funding they received this year. CTF president and CEO Sandra MacDonald and Canadian Heritage ADM Michael Wernick faced pointed questioning from Standing Committee on Official Languages chair Mauril Bélanger on June 3 over the matter. MacDonald said that funding to all sectors of the industry was down due to less money being available. The CTF was squeezed by a $25-million cut in government funding in this February’s federal budget, $5 million being redirected from the fund to cable community channels, and the fact that reserves of $40 million used last year are no longer available. Overall, MacDonald said there was 24% less funding available through the CTF. “With the reduced budget, there hasn’t been the same level of funding to any sector,” she noted. But during questioning, Bélanger proclaimed, “Percentage wise, the impact this year on the francophone minority...is not proportional. It is much greater at least by a factor of 25%. I understand you’ve been reduced 25% that affects everyone, but beyond that there is a further impact of 25% because proportionately from the previous year where the funding was at 10.5% (for francophone minority producers), it is now 7.5%.” MacDonald responded, “There was a big jump up for two years (in funding to francophone producers outside Quebec) from what had been a lower level, and there was a drop this year to a level more like three years ago. If we had the $25 million, in fact, we would have seen a proportion that would have been more like last year for this particular group.” During his presentation, Wernick stated that CTF support to francophone minority communities had “increased considerably” from 1997-98 to 2002-03. In 1997-98, the CTF contributed under $2 million to minority francophone producers but the figure had risen to between $20 million and $25 million by 2002-03, according to Wernick. What has killed a gradual upward trend in CTF financing of French-language production outside Quebec is the new broadcaster priorities criteria introduced for determining funding this year, according to Cécile Chevrier, president of the Alliance des producteurs francophones du Canada (APFC) and a CTF board member. “These broadcaster priorities reduce to nothing the advantages which our projects could benefit from the CTF-LFP (Licence Fee Program),” she told the committee. “In this year’s two rounds of funding, we acknowledge a general 60% and 50% refusal rate. Where we are concerned, the refusal rate is 72% and 78% respectively. All in all, only four out of 17 submitted projects were financed.” She further noted that only two projects outside of Quebec from a total of 46 French submissions received financing. Calling 2003 the “dark year” for French-language production outside Quebec, Chevrier also complained that Radio-Canada gave only 13 of its available 420 priority points to francophone productions outside Quebec, and that the public broadcaster supported 11 documentary projects in Montreal, but none in Moncton. MacDonald also pointed out that regional producers qualify for a number of bonuses, including 5% for being in French, 5% for being produced in the regions, 5% for being outside of Montreal and 5% for being outside of Quebec. One-third of CTF funding goes toward French-language production, but she noted that the CTF supports a significant portion of French-language productions, as they are produced at a cost that is lower than most English-language shows. Chevrier’s group is asking that a set portion of public funds going to independent production in Canada be assigned to French-language productions outside Quebec, either through a minimal guarantee or an envelope, such as the minority-language envelope established for the Aboriginal community. She wants Canadian Heritage to appoint a “competent person” to study the matter and make appropriate recommendations by July 1. She also wants the government to completely examine the CTF, and require all public or private television stations receiving public funding to give 15% of all licensing fees to independent French-language productions outside of Quebec. Wernick told Canadian Communications Reports following his appearance before the committee that he did not know what Bélanger was referring to with the 7.5% statistic because not all of this year’s CTF funding for documentaries has been given out. “And the documentary is very important for this community. They do a lot of docs,” he said. During the proceeding, Wernick told the committee that there were four possible courses of action that it could recommend. The options include diverting $12 million to $20 million from the CTF to a separate fund that could be administered by Telefilm Canada for French-language productions outside of Quebec, or creating an envelope within the CTF for these kinds of productions. He also suggested that minimal guarantees to minority-language producers could be established, or that the CTF could give bonuses for these productions, as it currently does. Wernick tells CCR that he’s never appeared before the Standing Committee on Official Languages on CTF matters, and that Canadian Heritage will have its work cut out balancing the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage’s report on the Canadian broadcasting system and François Macerola’s study on Canadian content with any suggestions made by the Standing Committee on Official Languages. The Heritage committee report and Macerola study are expected to be released sometime next week. The Official Languages committee has investigated other areas of broadcast policy, including recently recommending that distributors be required to carry all the French and English signals of the CBC (CCR, Feb. 13/03).

Francophone producers criticize CTF’s new criteria before Parliamentary committee

Broadcast | June 5, 2003

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