Evidence of meeting #12 for Canadian Heritage in the 39th Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was films.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
Thank you, Chair.
I apologize for being late. I had extra responsibilities and I couldn't be in two places at one time.
Thank you very much coming for here today, Mr. Roy.
When I was listening to Mr. Fast, I thought he was lobbying for the Ed Fast story as a made-for-TV movie or something, but we'll have to wait.
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
Mr. Roy, my constituency has a very large production centre for the film industry in British Columbia. Burnaby, B.C., is one of the key places of film and television production in Canada, and certainly even in North America, when you look at Vancouver being recently the third-largest production centre in North America after California and New York City.
We know that the Canadian dollar coming to parity with and even above the value of the U.S. dollar has put certain pressures, not only on the industry in British Columbia, but all across Canada. I'm wondering if this is something that's in Telefilm's mandate to address, and if there are possibilities or programs that will specifically address the challenges that this makes for Canada's competitive position in attracting foreign production work into Canada. Is there a role for Telefilm in that type of crisis, which we may be facing?
Chair, Board of Directors, Telefilm Canada
That's not an easy question. I'm not sure I know enough about the British Columbia market to answer it very specifically. However, I learned from the documents I examined that the British Columbia film industry was based mainly on U.S. productions filmed in Vancouver, among other places.
Your region is obviously very much affected by the screenwriters' strike. I believe that's what you're alluding to. We are highly sensitive to these problems. Furthermore, you'll understand that Telefilm Canada's role is, first and foremost, to try to build a Canadian audiovisual industry based on bright minds, to create Canadian productions and to realize them.
On that subject, you know that we have a regional office in Vancouver. Telefilm Canada is making every possible effort from Vancouver to try to build that Canadian industry by involving producers and directors from Vancouver, as it is doing in Halifax and in other parts of the country.
As regards the specific problem you're currently facing, we can only hope it will be temporary and that your industry will not have to suffer too much from it.
Conservative
Liberal
Andy Scott Liberal Fredericton, NB
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I just want to put a question to the chair. Further to the intervention earlier by the member for Moose Jaw, in making his point the member used language that we don't often hear here. I'm sure his defence of that would be simply that he wanted to make a point, that he wanted to speak to the reality of the movies he was speaking about. And I would argue that many of these artists would make exactly the same defence in terms of the drama--that the excesses, in some cases, or what we would see as excesses, they feel compelled to use as well, to reflect reality.
I would address this question to Monsieur Roy. As an avid viewer of television, of movies, perhaps he could offer some comment on the rather significant number of American movies we see on CBC. As a future partner in the domestic film and television world and as the chair of Telefilm, would he have a comment on that, on how he feels about it and how that might impact his view of that relationship?
Chair, Board of Directors, Telefilm Canada
Sir, I believe the interpreter had trouble following you. If I understand correctly, you regret the excessively large number of American films broadcast by the CBC.
That's not a situation I've studied thus far. You regretted it in the case of Radio-Canada and I regreted it in the case of satellite television. Where I am, in the country, I have access to channels that broadcast films. I would have hoped there would be more original French-language versions, but I see that the French-language channels present us with an amazing number of French-language versions of American films. So the problem you raise in connection with the CBC also applies to other stations.
Ultimately, I think that the fact that we're invaded by the U.S. film industry is at the origin of the problem you raise. That affects the Canadian film industry and our Canadian audiences. It's a situation I reget. Earlier I mentioned that having better stories, better told stories and trying to build a star system might be one way to address this problem in English Canada.
As for what is going on at the CBC, I would prefer you put your question to Mr. Hubert T. Lacroix, the new President and CEO of that organization.
Liberal
Andy Scott Liberal Fredericton, NB
The reason I made the point was that during our recent review of the future of the CBC, a number of witnesses talked about the need for more collaboration in a country with a small population, where we do have a number of publicly funded national institutions working in similar areas. In the collaboration I'm talking about, with the very particular problem we see in English Canada, we hope that all of these institutions are seized with the threat to our capacity of competing with a large competitor to the south.
Chair, Board of Directors, Telefilm Canada
You're absolutely right.
I briefly addressed the question a little earlier. I could talk to you about an experience that I had and that I think has a number of points in common with what you're raising. However, I don't know how much time I have left.
Chair, Board of Directors, Telefilm Canada
In the mid-1970s, I was deputy minister of tourism in Quebec. The situation at the time was very similar to that currently prevailing in the film industry in English Canada. In the tourism industry, the large hotel owners didn't talk to the small hotel owners, the hotel owners didn't talk to the restaurant owners, and the restaurant owners didn't talk to the special events organizers. Each worked in isolation, no one talked to each other, and everyone relied on the government to promote tourism.
That example may not be perfect, but it seems to me that it's very similar to what English Canada is going through now. The best way to try to build a strong film industry in English Canada would be precisely to bring these people together. In the film industry, the situation was the same in Quebec a few years ago. Now we have events such as Ciné Québec, which I attended this week. It's a kind of market where producers present their productions to distributors in the room. The distributors present their distribution books to movie theatre owners who are also there. All these people talk to each other. I think that's a fundamental condition for the marketing of the English-language film industry to take off.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Schellenberger
Thank you for that.
I think that brings us to a conclusion of this part of the meeting. I don't think we have to call for a recess or anything like that, but I'd like someone to move that we accept Mr. Roy.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Schellenberger
Mr. Fast has moved that the chair report to the House that the committee has examined the qualifications and competence of Mr. Michel Roy to the position of chair of the board of directors of Telefilm Canada, and finds him competent to perform the duties of the position.
(Motion agreed to)
Welcome, sir, and thank you.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Schellenberger
I would just like to bring one other thing to your attention before we go any further. I've been advised that a few people didn't realize we might talk about the broadcaster of the 21st century in the time that's left. So it's my suggestion that we all go home and make sure that next Tuesday we're right up to speed, so that we can move along.
I would just like to say that we have four more meetings at our disposal before the next break on February 18. It would be great if we could get through our draft proposal, which would give our analyst time to bring something together over the break time. It is important to note that if we do come to an agreement, the committee will adopt, either today or the next meeting, a motion setting a deadline for submitting a dissenting opinion. We have to have some time for that dissenting opinion in the report. So if we could all do our homework over the next few days, I would hope that when we come back on Tuesday, we could go forward on our thing.
Mr. Bélanger.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
Mr. Chairman, I can tell you that as the official opposition, we will certainly do our best to reach the deadline you mentioned. I think it would be quite encouraging to finish within the next two weeks, so that during the break week the report could indeed be finalized and we could look at tabling it in the House and making it public the first week in March at the latest. We will endeavour to go through the remaining items we have to deal with—perhaps all of them the next week. That would be my hope, giving us that second week to look at a final version.
We'll endeavour to do that.
Conservative
