Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee, for allowing us to appear before you today for this review of the Canadian feature film industry.
My name is Stephen Waddell. I am the national executive director of ACTRA, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists. Joining me, from Montreal, is ACTRA member Sarah Gadon. In addition to being recognized as one of the stars in TIFF's inaugural rising stars programme in 2011, Sarah has also graced the screen in a number of films and television series, including Cosmopolis, Antiviral, A Dangerous Method, Maps to the Stars, and the upcoming TV series11/22/63, which will be filmed this summer in Toronto.
Sarah and I are here today as the voice of ACTRA members, 22,000 professional English-language performers from across Canada. For almost 70 years we have represented performers living and working in every part of the country, performers who are pivotal to bringing Canadian stories to life in film, television, sound recordings, radio and digital media. Recently, we appeared before the CRTC as part of the Commission's Let's Talk TV consultation. Like all stakeholders from across Canada's recorded media sector, ACTRA spoke to the challenges our industry faces and the need to concentrate resources on areas where they'll have the most impact. Though the individual issues might differ from those of today's hearings, the underlying force that drives both of these endeavours is change.
Sarah.