That would be me, thank you.
My name is Tyrone Benskin. I'm a Montreal-based Canadian performer with over 150 film and television credits to my name, including six national, international, and Canadian series, and numerous digital gaming programs. I'm also the national vice-president of ACTRA. With me today is Stephen Waddell, ACTRA's national executive director.
Thank you for giving us this opportunity to speak on behalf of the 21,000 professional performers in film, television, sound recordings, radio, and digital media who live and work in every corner of this country.
We are also pleased to represent ACTRA's Recording Artists' Collecting Society, which distributes neighbouring rights and private copying moneys to musicians, including the 17,000 members of Canada's AFM.
As creators, we are excited by the opportunities we see before us, as it gets easier for people around the globe to see and enjoy our work. We're already working in new and emerging media, creating the content that Canadians want to enjoy on their computer screens, cellphones, and iPods, through their gaming consoles, and sometimes even through their TVs.
Today Canada's cultural industries represent $85 billion, or 7.4% of Canada's GDP. As this is home to some of the largest video game manufacturers and most innovative digital creators, this number will get even higher as we move further into this digital world.
However, in order to seize the opportunities of this creative economy and compete in an increasingly digital and borderless world, we need your leadership.
Canada needs a national digital media strategy that combines several key components. These include: strict limits on foreign ownership; increased investment in content creation; a modern regulatory framework that ensures there is shelf space for Canadian content; and new copyright laws that give audiences access to the content while ensuring creators are justly compensated.
Technology has changed the way Canadians, and indeed the world, engage in new media. What hasn't changed is that content is king. And the demand for content has never been higher.
Canada has some of the most diverse, educated, and creative minds in the world. Canadian workers in communications technology are some of the most skilled in the world. That said, we need the leadership of the federal government--indeed, this government--in the development of a national digital strategy that ensures we don't fall behind when it comes to producing content.
But with that also comes space. For far too long we've struggled to get space in prime time on our own TV screens and screens in our own movie theatres. Now, when there's no end to screens and paths of distribution, I worry that we won't be prepared to fill that space.
The corporate consolidation and the rapid evolution of technology, telecommunications, and broadcasting have converged. Telephone companies own cable, broadcast, and satellite assets; and cable companies own telecommunications, satellites, and broadcasters. And content is being delivered to Canadians through all of these media.
How do we ensure in an increasingly borderless world that we are able to continue to create Canadian content, by Canadians, for Canadians and the world to enjoy?
First, make sure the Canadian-owned communication companies can flourish. That means maintaining the current restrictions on foreign ownership of telecoms and broadcasters so that Canadians, and not foreign interests, control our content.
Our converged communications companies are too economically vital to be given away to foreign conglomerates. We've seen what happens to other industries when they are bought by foreign companies. They send their folks in here to manage things for a while and take advantage of tax breaks. Then they shut them down and ship the equipment and jobs overseas, tossing Canadian workers aside. I suggest that this would be no different for the cultural industry.
Foreign companies won't care about telling Canadian stories. In the interests of cost versus profit, they'll ship prepackaged monoculture across the border, leaving Canadians without a voice. It is the government's duty to make our communications industries stronger, not to sell them off.
We also need to support Canadians who are creating Canadian content. Government must embrace policies that promote the production of content that reflects Canada to Canadians and the world, regardless of the types of screens we're watching them on.
The Canada Media Fund is a positive step in this direction; however, it isn't new money. For Canada's digital media industry to thrive, it needs enhanced, long-term government investment. CBC, Telefilm, and the NFB also need clear mandates and stable public funding to ensure that they are again leaders in telling Canadian stories in this new digital world.
A federal tax credit for original digital media production, similar to the Canadian film or video production tax credit, would encourage private investment, further developing and, as importantly, retaining Canada's highly skilled digital media workers.
The federal government could also offer incentives to encourage Canadian advertisers to support websites featuring Canadian content. You can expand section 19.1 of the Income Tax Act to give Canadian advertisers tax deductions for advertising on Canadian-owned websites that give prominence to Canadian digital media content.
I will now ask Stephen Waddell to speak about shelf space for Canadian content and about copyright reform.