Finance Committee on Oct. 19th, 2006

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

We have Madam Ablonczy to conclude.

[Diane Ablonczy, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

We appreciate all your presentations. We wish we had more time. I want to speak with Mr. Varughese, though. We need fuel for our culture as well as for our industry.

One of your recommendations is to increase funding to the CBC. You know, of course, the recent concerns about the CBC news being deferred for American programming.

What satisfies you that additional funding would actually benefit Canadian writers and screenwriters?

[Sughith Varughese]

Unfortunately, for most of our members, the CBC is pretty much the only game in town for doing drama.

Development is where our members live. I have made a living writing scripts that don't get made, but that's the process: we're the R and D of the industry. Of the major networks and the small specialty channels, the CBC is the volume buyer of that development. The other networks, because they just don't have the broadcast time—they're too busy showing CSI and other shows—don't have room for Canadian drama.

Without the CBC being the prime mover in developing and then hopefully producing drama.... It's not happening anywhere else anyway; that's why we want increased funding for CBC.

[Diane Ablonczy, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Yes, I understand. That's a good clarification.

Has there been any exploration of getting a PBS kind of initiative in Canada for our made-in-Canada drama?

[Sughith Varughese]

I think that was the theory behind what the CBC was doing. Theoretically, they're not driven by commercial concerns--and ratings. But of course, they are.

If you go to India, you'll see indigenous programs, and the production values are pretty low. But the audience is huge, because they can't see themselves watching Friends, which is there too. So if they want to see themselves, they're willing to put up with the lower production values.

But in Canada we're spoiled. We see CSI and we just turn the dial and we see a Canadian show. If our product can't compete on a production-level basis, it's very difficult to capture an audience that has the clicker in their hands.

Personally, I would love to see a channel that shows only Canadian drama and is funded by the taxpayer. I don't know if the taxpayers would be interested unless we could show that the drama speaks to them.

Part of our problem is that we've created at least a generation or more that has grown up on American and Hollywood programming. They can project themselves into a show like Friends and think they're seeing themselves, whereas if you show them a story that's set in our country, it's somehow not as cool.

So we have a lot of work to do that way. I think that idea would be marvellous, and sure, let's throw that into the wish list.

[Diane Ablonczy, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Okay, thank you very much, and good luck.

[Sughith Varughese]

Thank you. We'll need it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Brian Pallister]

Thank you very much, sir.

Thank you all for your presentations and your time today.

I want to also publicly congratulate the members of this committee, who have for the last month engaged in a rather intensive process and probably got not enough exercise, if I'm any example.

In any case, we do appreciate your time today very much and we thank you.

Committee members, we look forward to seeing you Monday in St. John's.

We're adjourned.