Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. My name is Pamela Brand, and I am the national executive director and CEO of the Directors Guild of Canada. With me today is Monique Lafontaine, general counsel and director of regulatory affairs at the DGC.
The DGC is a national labour organization that represents key creative and logistical personnel in the film and television production industries. We have over 3,800 members across the country working in 47 different craft and occupational categories, including direction, production, editing, and design of film and television programming in Canada. The DGC appreciates the opportunity to provide the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage with our views on the role and value of the Canadian Television Fund.
We'd like to begin by stating that the CTF is the single most important source of funding for Canadian programs in our country. It provides crucial support for both English- and French-language programs in the drama, documentary, children's, and music and variety genres.
The CTF has been a tremendous success. Since its inception in 1996 it has funded more than 20,000 hours of high-quality Canadian programs, including Da Vinci's Inquest, DeGrassi: The Next Generation, This Hour has 22 Minutes, Les Bougon, Newsroom, Instant Star, Un gars, une fille, Little Mosque on the Prairie, and Trailer Park Boys, to mention a few.
As the CTF representatives indicated to you last week, many CTF-funded programs have earned critical acclaim, impressive Canadian audiences, and licensing deals with broadcasters around the world. Without the CTF we'd surely see a significant drop in the amount of high-quality Canadian programming made in our country. Given the size of the Canadian market, it's very difficult to finance productions made primarily for Canadian audiences. Left solely to market forces, many genres of programs would not be made here.
The CTF also brings significant economic benefits to our country. In 2005 to 2006 it was responsible for 46,700 direct and indirect jobs in Canada. Additionally, the CTF plays a pivotal role in leveraging private sector investment. In 2005-06 the CTF budget of $249 million triggered additional financing worth $568 million. This resulted in $817 million in total annual production of Canadian content for Canadian television.
It is therefore crucial that the CTF remain in place now and well into the future. The Canadian government must maintain this cultural funding program.
We'd now like to turn to the crisis that the CTF and indeed the entire Canadian production sector are facing. Monique Lafontaine is going to speak to you about this.