I said that NIFCO was a beacon in the social economy because largely it functions as a non-profit facilitator or aggregator of opportunity. It provides access to a normally restrictive environment because of rental costs or equipment acquisition or access to personnel. So it's empowering people to create micro-businesses called film and television that employ a lot of people, which is the economy side, but with a social conscience. They're still making work that's about their place and their people.
I'll give you an example. If you look at the last year for which numbers are available, which would be two years ago, there was somewhere in the area of $26 million worth of independent production in Newfoundland and Labrador. It was all instigated by small companies like Lynne's and mine. Our numbers show that approximately 60% of that was for labour, and approximately 55% of that was spent directly in Newfoundland and Labrador. So it works out to be approximately $8 million or $10 million worth of labour paid straight into the cultural workforce economy.
When we did a sub-analysis of where that crossed over, it was impressive, because the film and television industry put more money into writers' pockets than the publishing industry. The film and television industry put more money into actors' pockets than the theatre industry, and it put more money into technicians' pockets. The only sector that beat us was music. The music industry put more money into the musicians' pockets than we did by hiring them for film.
So when somebody decides they have to make a film or television project that's important to them and important to the community, that's the social aspect of it. The economic aspect of it is that we can aggregate that activity to provide them with resources, trigger other money, team them up with the CBC and broadcasters, and get it out to the audience, and at the same time we create economic activity in a positive way that is non-polluting, labour-intensive, and export-oriented.