Evidence of meeting #11 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was designers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:50 a.m.
Conservative
10:50 a.m.
Liberal
Raymond Simard Liberal Saint Boniface, MB
Thank you very much. I just have two quick questions.
The first one is this. We've been talking a lot about the U.S. influence in our film and television industry, but we haven't spoken about the European or Asian influence. Unlike Mr. Van Kesteren, I don't necessarily enjoy going home and watching Rambo. More and more I'm watching European productions, for example, La Vie en Rose. I'm not sure if it was a Franco-Canadian production, but it's an excellent film. More and more, a lot of my colleagues, a lot of the people I know, are going to that kind of production.
Are we noticing an influx of that kind of European or Asian films and television productions? Is it cutting into our industry, or is it cutting into the U.S. influence?
10:55 a.m.
National President, Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA)
From our point of view, there's a small influx. They're called co-production agreements. There are foreign productions that shoot in this country occasionally. Bollywood films, for example, are often done in the Mississauga-Toronto area because of the community that's available to them there for casting. It's not reducing the amount of other service production. It's a very small amount of production. Generally a film like La Vie en Rose--which I think was a co-production between France and Canada, but parts of it were shot in Quebec, not English Canada--is not something that is eroding Canadian production. In our industry, there are always people available. There's never 100% employment.
In fact, for performers there's never 100% employment. Crews could be 100% employed in British Columbia occasionally because of all the American production that was there, which has now fled, by the way. A lot of it fled because of the dollar.
10:55 a.m.
Liberal
Raymond Simard Liberal Saint Boniface, MB
By the way, I'm from Saint Boniface in Manitoba, and I don't consider myself in English Canada. It's a bilingual Canada.
With regard to tax credits, I should probably know this, but for American companies coming up and filming in Winnipeg or filming in Vancouver, are there any advantages to them in terms of tax credits, or does that apply only to Canadian companies?
10:55 a.m.
National President, Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA)
No. There are federal tax credits for service production, which is a lower percentage--service production tax credits, they're called--which is a lower percentage than for domestic production. I think the figures are not very high. Sorry, I don't have them at the tip of my tongue, but I think it's 11% and 13%. It's applied to the labour contingent of a budget only. Provincially there are other tax credits that apply to labour only.
10:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Thank you.
We have two minutes.
Mr. Tabor, on your point on the regulation, I've asked the researchers, but if you have anything to submit to us on that, I think the committee would like to look at the details. I'll finish up with that.
Ms. Sannella, the designers have said, with respect to the S and T strategy, that they feel they were not included in the first draft. It was obviously the first draft. I think, as Mr. Carrie indicated, there's certainly opportunity to be included in the discussion. We can certainly submit your name. If there is anyone else who should be included in that S and T discussion, please let us know. I don't think it was an oversight; I think there was sort of a first draft discussion. But you can certainly be included.
I just want to finish up with Mr. Hardacre.
I was part of the committee that recommended the four recommendations on foreign ownership to which you referred. One of the witnesses we had at the time was Leonard Asper. I remember the committee chiding him for not putting enough resources into drama, and I used the term “English drama”. He challenged the committee and asked the committee two questions. He asked how many around the table had seen Law and Order. We all put up our hands. He asked how many had seen the flagship show Blue Murder. Not one member of any party put up a hand. His response was, “You're going to chide me for not putting resources into drama, but the fact is that none of you watch it”.
This is a very long discussion, but that's a very challenging point. We all support it. It's like asking if you support Canadian content on television. We all do. It's like asking if you love your mother. Of course we do. But if we don't actually act on that and watch it... There are some comedies that have done well, but in terms of drama, it seems that Canadians are choosing Law and Order over Da Vinci's Inquest, or whatever. I think that's what Mr. Van Kesteren was hitting at from that perspective. Will Canadians watch drama, whether it's subsidized or not, that is produced here in Canada?
10:55 a.m.
National President, Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA)
Give them a chance to watch and let the audience grow. Leonard Asper is no good example. CanWest Global had a series as well, called Cold Squad.
10:55 a.m.
National President, Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA)
They moved it around. In the second year it was on the air, they moved it around. Week by week you didn't know which night it was going to be on, and the audience left. Then they replaced it with an American show they got more cheaply, called Cold Case. It was actually a rip-off of the idea. It was extremely well produced, because there's big money behind it. An American one-hour series gets $13 million per episode to shoot, but a Canadian one-hour series, if it's lucky, gets $1 million to shoot. So they replaced it with Cold Case.
Friends of mine, Canadian actors and crew--120 people--lost their jobs in that production, which was shooting in Vancouver. CanWest Global said that it didn't have an audience. It didn't have an audience because the broadcaster made it lose its audience. They manipulated the audience to not know when to find it in prime time. I have no sympathy for Mr. Asper's excuses. I told him that myself when I saw him at the CRTC hearing.
10:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
That's a very good discussion. I think we could probably continue this.
I want to thank you all for your presentations. It was a very interesting discussion.
I want to thank members for their questions.
If you have anything further to submit to the committee on this study, or if any of you want to submit with respect to the dollar issue, please feel free to do so. We're doing that study at the same time.
Thank you.
The meeting is adjourned.