Evidence of meeting #25 for Canadian Heritage in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was telefilm.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
Thank you for coming in this afternoon. We appreciate the information that you're bringing and the answers to our questions.
I have a couple of questions to begin with, just to give me a little bit more information. Obviously you must watch the international community in terms of initiatives that happen in other countries. Have you identified any other country that has a structure similar to ours in Canada to promote domestic film production? What countries have you noticed that have systems similar to ours, and possibly systems different from ours?
4:35 p.m.
Executive Director, Telefilm Canada
The direct answer is that the vast majority of countries in the world have corporations such as Telefilm Canada or public agencies, both federal and provincial, like Telefilm Canada or SODEC in Quebec. It's more the norm than the exception.
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
Right. I'm just wondering if we have a country similar to Canada. I'll just take the example of Australia. Would you be able to tell me what kind of system they have in place in Australia?
4:35 p.m.
Executive Director, Telefilm Canada
They have a system very similar to our own. They have something akin to the envelope system we were talking about earlier. They have a market interest fund. They provide financial support through the Australian Film Development Corporation for development, for production, and for distribution. Candidly, they struggle with the same challenges as we have in reaching audiences. I think one of their best years was 6% or 7%, and about two or three years ago it was under 1%.
I was at a congress in Denmark earlier in the summer. It was intended for the EU countries, but when I read about it, they were tabling all the same problems as we're grappling with. I called up the head of the Danish Film Institute and asked if he minded if I crashed his congress. He said not at all--the Australians were coming as well.
Members from Crete to Bulgaria and Romania--all of the EU--were there. The questions and the challenges were exactly the same.
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
That's what I was hoping you would tell me--not because I think that it's wonderful or anything, but it reinforced a suspicion of mine that we're all facing the reality that we're coming up against the big American industry. Is that correct? Is the biggest issue that the Americans are taking most of it?
4:35 p.m.
Executive Director, Telefilm Canada
Sorry, but with all due respect to Hollywood--wonderful films--that's not our challenge. They are ubiquitous. They're spending $100 million on a production and another $50 million on the marketing. As you know, Telefilm's budget is less than $100 million for all films everywhere. My point is that it's a niche market we're looking for, and that it's Canadian driven.
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
With all due respect, my thought was that the idea of Telefilm was to ensure that we had a film industry in this country that would be competitive, to ensure that Canadians would access domestically produced art. Is that not the case? Isn't it essentially a competition among everything that's going to be coming to the screens to ensure that there is Canadian content being produced that will compete for the interest of Canadians?
4:35 p.m.
Executive Director, Telefilm Canada
Yes, it is, but the reality, given the size of our budget--
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
I recognize the issue of your budget. What I'm wondering, though, is if in the broader scheme of things it is still the intent of Telefilm to see a competitive industry created here in this country.
4:35 p.m.
Executive Director, Telefilm Canada
Absolutely, and after 40 years...I'm old enough to have seen the growth in this industry, and it is considerable, believe me. There are those who would argue academically and on the street that the real birth of Canadian cinema as a sustainable industry occurred when the Canadian Film Development Corporation, now Telefilm Canada, was established in 1967. Additions such as tax credits and co-production agreements--we've got these tools to ensure a strong, healthy industry. It's constantly under stress, constantly looking for partners and dollars, but where it's at is pretty impressive.
As I say, it's shared by many countries in the world, although there are countries like France, particularly, that give four times more money in support of their industry than Germany does, and of course there is the success of the Danish film industry.
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
I'm just curious as to whether you know the numbers or if you could break them down in terms of viewership in this country for, let's say, films that come to the box office. In terms of the origin of those films, in terms of other countries and where these films are coming from, could you break them down generally? Compare the Canadian number to what the American number is and what the international number is.
4:40 p.m.
Executive Director, Telefilm Canada
The goal of the Canadian feature film fund was 5% of the domestic market. Over the five years of the Canadian feature film fund, as you know, we reached that. We exceeded it by a modest 0.3%.
Behind that success, we all know, is the dramatic—
4:40 p.m.
Executive Director, Telefilm Canada
—accomplishment of Quebec cinema, which at its peak in 2005-06 achieved something around 25% or 26%. The maximum in English Canada was 1.9%.
For the vast majority, I would say approximately 85% are American productions, along with 85% of the box office. The difference would be non-U.S. films, so it's overwhelmingly dominated by—
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
That's my concern. The only reason I've gone down this road—and I'm not trying to point out any deficiency—is to say that we as Canadians, I think, are failing.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
No, not everywhere. We're making progress, absolutely. But we have to think, at this committee, about how we're going to ensure that young Canadians are seeing Canadian content on the screen. Certainly we have a way to go, so we can appreciate that. I just wanted to see what we were experiencing.
4:40 p.m.
Liberal
Tina Keeper Liberal Churchill, MB
Thank you very much.
I'd like to follow up on what Mr. Warkentin was talking about, because my own experience in the past was that I was involved in the Canadian television industry. It was a very successful domestic product, but internationally, in terms of the international market in a business sense, it wasn't a highly marketable product. In terms of how you balance the value of heritage, of Canadian culture, against business considerations, I think that's one really important question, because I think there needs to be a balance.
Let's go back to this concept of a crown corporation. I'm wondering whether you believe a move in that direction would have a significant impact on being able to balance that.
4:40 p.m.
Executive Director, Telefilm Canada
As Monsieur Bélanger has stated, flexibility is an advantage. Certainly in the multi-platform universe, it's an even greater advantage. If I may, on your two points about business and culture, as long as I've been involved in the cultural industries, keeping that balance has been the constant, consistent frisson or challenge.
In the case of the Canadian feature film fund, it's very clear. Its number one priority is twofold. One is Canadian cinema and Canadian talent that Canadians want to see, and the overriding objective is a 5% box office share. That priority continues to this day. I think of films such as Men With Brooms or Bon Cop, Bad Cop, two very successful examples, one English-language and the other French-language.
Men With Brooms was a considerable success in this country. It did in excess of $4 million at the box office—quite a significant sum—it played DVDs and other platforms, and of course it went on the CBC and had one of the highest ratings for a Canadian film. I think 1.6 million saw it on CBC. So Canadians had the opportunity to see that film. That film had little, if any, success outside of Canada. Is that a disappointment? I'm sure it is to the filmmaker and the producer, and somewhat to us, but our priority was Canadian audiences.
The challenge with Bon Cop, Bad Cop was the same. It became the biggest-grossing film in the history of this country. In terms of its success outside of Canada, we'll see, but we achieved the mandate of the Canadian feature film fund.
We have co-production agreements. We have tax credits. It enables us to do partnerships. In my opening comments I referenced a major production called Silk, based on an international novel. It's a Japan–Italy–Canada co-production produced by Rhombus Media and directed by one of our great directors, François Girard, who did The Red Violin. That film will do well all over the world, and we're confident it will do so in Canada as well.
So there is this constant dichotomy, and in an unusual way, it's even healthy, as long as we have the tools and as long as there is Canadian participation. To repeat myself, in the Canadian feature film fund, it's Canadian talent making Canadian movies that Canadians and the world want to see.
4:45 p.m.
Liberal
Tina Keeper Liberal Churchill, MB
Thank you. I understand what you're saying in terms of the Canadian feature film fund, but in terms of becoming a crown corporation, do you see, following on that, that with these types of successes we would have a greater opportunity for success given the flexibility of a crown corporation?
November 29th, 2006 / 4:45 p.m.
Executive Director, Telefilm Canada
I think the flexibility is a benefit. I am sorry for repeating myself, but to go back to this multi-platform universe, we have to be able to respond quickly to the changes in the environment, to the changes in the industry, industrially as well as culturally.
To move quickly we have to have that flexibility; we can only reference it in that context.
