Canadian Heritage Committee on Nov. 29th, 2006

[Maka Kotto, Bloc, Saint-Lambert, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

To begin, and without any intended offence to my colleague and friend Mr. Bélanger, I would like to refer to a principle of reality which is based both on the movie market in Canada and in Quebec, and on the motion which was adopted in the House of Commons barely a few hours ago, to speak anew about the Quebec cinema, which is in full expansion and which faces challenges which the rest of Canada does not, namely to make its mark in the world.

In your opinion, should there not be a new fund to support French co-productions with other countries?

[Michel Pradier]

A little earlier, perhaps I forgot to say in my answer that in order to help Quebec through its funding crisis, the task force is studying financial models, as they apply to domestic financial partners, and it has also studied other cinematographic models, as well as what is being done in other countries. This might give us an idea of what funding model Quebec should adopt in order to better support its own film industry.

But the Telefilm Canada strategy is not limited to the task force. We are very proactive internationally. As you know, we administer 53 co-production treaties. Furthermore, we have launched a series of initiatives to stimulate the sale of francophone productions abroad, including an international marketing fund. We can give up to $50,000 per movie to help it find an international buyer, because international sales are one way of financing our own market.

During strategic meetings last fall in Cannes and Namur, we invited our counterparts from other francophone countries, including France, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Belgium, to come to a meeting in Montreal next January. I am pleased to report that they all accepted the invitation, and the point of the meeting is to talk about co-productions. They told us that they intended to take direct action to improve what may be called “natural” co-productions, which would not only involve joint financing—this, in reality, means each side is doing the other a favour—but also an effort to reach audiences in both countries.

I must say that the feedback was extremely positive. We expect that a lot of good will come out of this meeting, which may lead to the creation of an international co-production fund. We have presented models for such a fund internally. We will begin by trying to implement this type of approach within our organization to show our counterparts that we are acting in good faith and to encourage them to come on board.

[Maka Kotto, Bloc, Saint-Lambert, QC]

If it did go ahead, do you think it would be possible to present to committee members the co-production project with the francophone countries? Could you present, at least to our committee, such a project for our own education and enlightenment?

[Michel Pradier]

At this point, it's only a draft.

But there are models in Europe, such as Eurimages and the Ibermedia program, which is directed at Spanish-speaking countries.

I think that within the idea of community within a global space, the world francophone community provides an opening to French Canada, as well as an opportunity for French Canadians to show they are interested in doing something for cultural diversity and for national cinema, and to take advantage of this funding. Why not?

But it is still at the draft stage.

[Maka Kotto, Bloc, Saint-Lambert, QC]

I would like to remind my colleagues that co-productions ease the financial burden of Telefilm Canada. As you have just said, in the future, more and more co-productions will express our cultural diversity.

In a few moments, I will speak to what Mr. Fast said with regard to the funding of films which can only be successful. But because I come from this field, I would like to point out that we cannot always assume in advance that this or that film will be successful. Just as you cook with ingredients, some movies' ingredients, such as the screenplay and the cast, may lead people to believe that they will be successful, when they turn out to be bombs. This must be taken into consideration.

So on the one hand, we must consider commercial successes; and on the other, critical successes, artistic successes. These types of successes are generally found with auteur, or art-house films, which sometimes do a good job of representing the country or countries at international film festivals. They can also attract a lot of tourists and help people better understand the culture of other countries, as well as the degree of creativity of the people from those countries. This is also an important factor.

Success cannot always be measured in terms of financial profitability. The strength of French cinema lies with its two pillars, the commercial one and the artistic one, or, as they are called, art-house films or experimental cinema. The French have an advantage which we have never had in Canada or in Quebec, which is a box office tax on commercial movies. Everyone knows that American movies attract a lot of moviegoers, and the tax on the tickets for those movies allows for the funding of a parallel cinema which is not commercial. As far as I know, that's how it works.

Why don't we have that type of system here? That was my final question.

[Charles Bélanger]

A box office tax falls under provincial jurisdiction. We have nothing to do with that.

[Maka Kotto, Bloc, Saint-Lambert, QC]

What about the rest of Canada?

[Charles Bélanger]

I can only talk about what I know. I don't know what the situation is like in the rest of Canada.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Thank you very much.

Usually at the end of some of these, I have to get my two cents' worth in. Here are just a couple of things I've realized today; correct me if I'm wrong.

You'd like to see the silos taken out to give a little more flexibility, so that when the occasion comes along you're not stuck with a whole pile over here and can't move it over there. That's one thing. As for policy review, it's been a long time since the policy of Telefilm has been looked at.

I'd like to congratulate you for bringing the stakeholders together around the table and getting a consensus. That's a great step forward. When we did our study a little over a year ago of the feature film industry, I wouldn't have known how you would get all those different factions to sit around and even come anywhere near a consensus. So I congratulate you for that.

Again, long-term sustainable funding is something we hear about around this table from just about every organization or group that ever comes in. I think it has to also include the private sector. I know the cable companies.... There's various other funding that has to go forward, and I think those things should go.

Right on: bricks and mortar don't make films. I think that was a great move. It'll only take money away from film production.

I use a little example in my hometown, in Stratford, where I live. I live outside of Stratford, but I still call Stratford my hometown. There was a new Children's Aid Society building put in there. I don't know how many millions of dollars were spent on it, and not one of those dollars helped a foster child. I don't like to see those big bureaucracies built, as that was.

But my very last thing is that when you talk about Bon Cop Bad Cop, that Colm Feore is one of my constituents, and I know him quite well.

Thank you again for your presentations today and the answers you've put forward to everyone around this table.

The meeting is adjourned.