Canadian Heritage committee  A decrease...that's interesting. No, I can't comment on that. I can tell you that the average production budget for 2006 was $287,740. I would say that's probably up about $60,000 or $70,000, so I guess there has been an increase. I don't think there's been a decrease. In terms of the people coming to us, because we don't have the money to do new media right now, I would say we are turning away certain people.

Canadian Heritage committee  We would like to do so because, as you know, there are cross platforms.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think so, it is a minimum.

Canadian Heritage committee  I do not know.

Canadian Heritage committee  Last time, we received 201 applications, a dozen of which were turned down. So there were 190 acceptable projects. We funded 68 of them.

Canadian Heritage committee  Last time, we received 47 French-language projects and accepted 18 of them. There were 25 projects from Quebec, including French and English language projects.

Canadian Heritage committee  You do, but you've also got documentary filmmakers who are very driven by their passion, particularly. They're driven by what they do. This woman who has just done the story on Asperger's syndrome lives it every day. She wants to communicate with people. People who go off and study la vie après le choc, where there's a situation in a town in Quebec where the factory is gone, and the effect it's having on people.

Canadian Heritage committee  We're a very small organization, as you know.

Canadian Heritage committee  We have put all of our moneys towards production, not into distribution. We don't have enough money to have a distribution program. What we do, however, is we have a moral obligation to our distributors. There are only certain distributors who work in the non-theatrical area. We have a list of them, and we require that when a producer receives funding, they have to take somebody from that list because those people know how to get to the non-theatrical market.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm sorry, our restrictions?

Canadian Heritage committee  The individual has to be a Canadian; a landed immigrant or a Canadian citizen. The subject matter has to be educational or informative. It might be an animation piece, but it definitely has to be educational or informative. It has to comply with our proof-of-market demand. It has to tell us who the specific audience is.

Canadian Heritage committee  We need some money. Right now we're between contribution agreements; our contribution agreement ended on October 5, 2006. We understand there is a submission in process to Treasury Board. We're very hopeful it will be renewed. In an ideal world, if you asked me for my Christmas list, I'd say I'd like more money to do more things.

Canadian Heritage committee  This is a bit of a different species, animal, bird, I don't know.

Canadian Heritage committee  You were primarily studying feature films in the last session, right?

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Robin Jackson. I am the executive director of the Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund. With me is Jean-Luis Robichaud, the co-chair of the fund and, in his regular day job, director of the Centre provincial de ressources pédagogiques in Saulnierville, Nova Scotia.