Evidence of meeting #34 for Canadian Heritage in the 41st 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.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
What would the number be if it was just Quebec?
Director, Film and Video Policy and Programs, Department of Canadian Heritage
It would probably be about the same.
Director, Film and Video Policy and Programs, Department of Canadian Heritage
Are you talking about box office revenues in Quebec?
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
Are we talking about 10% of box office revenues for French-language films or 10% of the box office revenues, period?
Director General, Cultural Industries, Department of Canadian Heritage
Ten percent of box office revenues, period.
These are French-language films in the French-language market.
Liberal
Director General, Cultural Industries, Department of Canadian Heritage
They make up 10% of the box office revenues.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
They make up 10% of the box office revenues in the French-language market.
Director General, Cultural Industries, Department of Canadian Heritage
Exactly.
Canadian films represent 10% of the films shown in French.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
I'm surprised it isn't higher than that. We're going to get beaten by the French.
Director General, Cultural Industries, Department of Canadian Heritage
There are also some American films shown in French.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
Ah, that's it, dubbed films. Okay, I understand.
With the multiple platforms in the second graph, what do you mean by that?
Director, Film and Video Policy and Programs, Department of Canadian Heritage
This could be television, video-on-demand, pay television, and video sales and rentals.
Director, Film and Video Policy and Programs, Department of Canadian Heritage
Television makes the difference.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
I understand.
Going back to the first graph, are box office revenues growing or decreasing overall in Canada?
We are seeing some percentages, but we aren't seeing the total in dollars.
Director, Film and Video Policy and Programs, Department of Canadian Heritage
It's been about a billion dollars a year for the past five years. The total hasn't really changed that much.
Director, Film and Video Policy and Programs, Department of Canadian Heritage
It's pretty flat.
Liberal
Director, Film and Video Policy and Programs, Department of Canadian Heritage
It depends on how far back you're looking.
Another factor is that we've seen recently, in the past five or six years, the popularity of 3-D films, and those ticket prices are higher. That's made a difference in the total box office.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
You spoke about changes in technology. If you had to write this document in 2005, when we did our last study, what would be different in the policy framework? How have the policies changed in the past decade?
Director General, Cultural Industries, Department of Canadian Heritage
Basically, the tools have remained the same: tax credits, Telefilm Canada, the National Film Board of Canada. We should see, but 10 years ago, that the National Film Board might produce more feature films; since then, it has migrated a great deal toward producing online animation and toward everything computer-generated. These aren't feature films like Kamouraska and Mon oncle Antoine.
I'm thinking about the situation 10 years ago, and I'm trying to see if we took action relating to the policy framework and the tools.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
Would you have written something very different 10 years ago?