Canadian Heritage Committee on March 23rd, 2015

[Claude Joli-Coeur]

There could be coordination between the public broadcasters and the federal and provincial public organizations so that our programs can be designed with a more comprehensive vision in mind, unlike what is in place right now.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

How could we go about that?

[Claude Joli-Coeur]

We could do it like the estates general.

Creators must do a colossal amount of work on the ground for their work to see the light of day. They need to make sure that they follow everyone's rules. That is what the producers were telling you earlier.

Before I joined the NFB, I was working in the private sector. So I am well aware that those intricacies are slowing down creation and that the creators must devote a lot of energy to their work. It is critical to simplify things if we want to make life easier for creators and cultural entrepreneurs.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

Ms. Brabant, how would you overcome your challenges in that regard?

[Carolle Brabant]

As we have shown, our industry is vibrant and makes a huge contribution to Canada's economic health. As my colleagues said, the government must continue to support it.

Our mandate is to promote and develop the audiovisual industry. There must be solid companies. The production companies are the ones that are looking for talent, that recognize them, that encourage them and that give them the funding to develop. It is a research and development industry. So success does not happen overnight. We need to maintain the assets and continue to support this major industry.

I heard a number of witnesses recommend that the government give Telefilm Canada back the $10 million that has been taken away. I assure you that I did not pay them to say that.

We are rejecting a huge amount of projects. We have promotion activities, but we should have more to showcase these young talents and young dynamic businesses. We have a lot of work to do on promotion and teamwork.

We should also find out the data. I like to think that it is possible to accomplish what can be measured. To do so, we need to have access to the viewing ratings on the other platforms, which we don't right now. We have access to the information about television and movie theatres, but not the viewing ratings on other platforms. I think that is a hugely important tool that would enable us to know what more we could do to reach Canadians.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

The CRTC was sort of told to take a hike when it asked to have access to some information.

[Carolle Brabant]

If we work together, we might be able to obtain it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Dykstra, for seven minutes.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It is actually interesting, Carolle, that the last part of your response in terms of working together was a question I had for all of you. In some ways you all are focused on the film industry, and in other ways all of you, at least in some part, receive some funding from the federal government through Parliament.

I was wondering how the three of you collaborate together in terms of identifying where and when you should assist.

The second piece to that is, whenever there is a conflict between the three of you, how do you resolve that? Or is there a conflict? How do you make determinations, especially when all three of you have made recommendations in terms of moving forward, in terms of the aggressive nature that the industry has changed?

How are you able to do that, working with each other to provide the kind of change you say is recommended?

[Simon Brault]

First of all, we are part of the same portfolio, and we have a new deputy minister who is very big on organizing meetings of the portfolio on strategic issues. I think those discussions are very good for us.

Claude and I just started. It's a new job for us. We do have many conversations. We try to understand what the big issues are for the future of culture in general and more specifically in terms of movies. I think it's very important for Canada. Obviously, film is a creative industry, and if you want to talk about a creative industry, you need to make sure that you constantly have the right pool of talent, that you nurture that talent, that you keep it in the country, that you provide the opportunities to develop it, and to make sure it can have a real outreach in Canada and on the international stage. We have our specific roles in that kind of ecosystem.

What is really important is to make sure that there is no overlap between what we do but there's a real and constant collaboration. I think the big issues around the digital age, access, supply and demand, and so on are absolutely common to all the artists and all the organizations we support. We are sharing the practices and finding ways to make sure that we have a simple story.

In my shop right now, we are going through a transformation to have a very limited number of programs with clearer outcomes. That will make us better partners for our colleagues and the private sector. Sometimes it's so complex, and if you look like an octopus, it's very difficult to partner with you. If you are simpler and clearer, you are a more interesting partner. This is what we try to do.

[Claude Joli-Coeur]

I sit ex officio on the board of directors of Telefilm, and Carolle sits on our board, so already it is a way to be very close and to be able to quickly fix things that might occur. I must say I am not hearing any complaints from creators about the collaboration between our institutions. At this stage, I think that things are working properly.

[Carolle Brabant]

It might sound obvious, but I think that communication is key. We've been trying as much as we can to consult with our colleagues, certainly the ones at this table, but also within the industry with our partners, the CMF, the CMPA, and provincial associations. It's very important to work together and not try to reinvent the wheel each time. We have to work together, set objectives and a vision, and work toward achieving that vision. Communication for us is key.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

Thank you.

One of the recommendations you made, your second one, was in regard to fostering more groundbreaking marketing practices by connecting with a larger number of viewers and encouraging the industry to find new ways of getting viewers to be more engaged with homegrown stories.

This seems in a bit of conflict with Telefilm's success index, 40% of which is based on box office receipts. I am seeing a bit of a collision between how you score right now and the recommendation you are making in terms of how we grow the industry from a more independent perspective.

[Carolle Brabant]

The box office is still a very important component. In changing management, we wanted to.... As you remember, five years ago we were strictly measuring on box office, so going from 100% on box office to 40% was already a big step. I think the box office is still very important.

What we wanted to do with the index was to give stakeholders a better portrait of what was happening in the film industry. I would say that the biggest change that has happened in the last five years is that consumers now have more ways to consume content. They have more power. We felt that looking strictly at the box office was not accurate. I don't see it as contradictory. I see it as a way of walking down the path.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

The National Film Board has over 2,000 Canadian productions on its website for free. One of the difficulties I see is that it sounds like it's almost in competition with Netflix, for example, which attempts to acknowledge Canadian content.

I wonder how in the future that kind of competition.... It almost seems as if you are in that kind of competition with folks like Netflix that obviously offer, for a very minimum monthly cost, the ability to access thousands of films.

The Film Board has Canadian content on it, but how do you see yourselves in terms of being able to ensure that Canadians are fully aware of what you have to offer from a Canadian content perspective versus a global giant like Netflix or Google?

[Claude Joli-Coeur]

Of course, marketing is a key thing and we are working on new ways to market our offer. Actually, we're up to 3,500 films and we keep adding new stuff.

Our business model is quite different. Our site is free and Netflix is, of course, a subscription base.

The brand of the NFB is key to that. It's something recognizable to Canadians. If we can get them to watch our films it will just.... Well, it's been working, but we want to do more.

We have an educational portal called Campus. We are across the country in each school. That's also a way to build that audience for the future, having our films seen in the classroom through that online screening room.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

I'm going to get one question in from Ms. Nash, and then that's going to be it.

[Peggy Nash, NDP, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the witnesses. Your three organizations have been critically important in the development of Canadian film.

Mr. Brault, I completely agree with you that you have to invest in creativity. It's like the germination process that supports the entire industry.

My one quick question for the three of you is, what is one thing each of you hopes to get out of the CRTC summit this fall, looking at the way forward for Canadian content?

[Simon Brault]

I don't want to repeat myself, but I think the question regarding the quality of Canadian content and how you nurture it is key. There are many questions.

We were talking about Netflix. Yes, it's a business model. It's interesting to realize that a lot of Canadians are watching it, but it doesn't reinvest a dollar in the creative capacity of Canada. The big question for us is that if the money doesn't come from networks like that, we need to make sure that public funders and private funders are more aware that every investment is key to make sure there will be capacity to create Canadian content. Otherwise, all the discussion becomes irrelevant.

It's only about plomberie and investments. It's a financial operation, but the heart of it is the creation.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

You each have 15 seconds.

[Claude Joli-Coeur]

Those channels are key. We have a channel on YouTube. They are bringing millions of viewers, but with minimal financial return. We're getting very few dollars out of that, so we need to keep a system where we will be able to fund Canadian content properly.

[Carolle Brabant]

Going back to what I was saying, what gets measured gets improved. I would like to see the numbers.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you, panellists. Your contributions were very insightful and will help the committee with our report. Thank you for coming.

The meeting is adjourned.