Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Nov. 17th, 2009

[Barbara Dunlop]

I think more and more film is having an impact on tourism. You see that all around the world. You see it in New Zealand and in Europe, with some of the feature films. The interesting thing is that it doesn't have to be a commercial; it can be a film project that happens to take place in a particular jurisdiction. The tourists are interested in that. They're interested in the setting itself. Even if it was cheating some other area, they still want to come to see where it was done.

The webisodes idea came about because we were trying, in a very holistic way, to provide opportunities for learning and experience for the crew base, the developers, the writers, and the producers and directors. In fact when we do our call for concepts, we're hoping that a number of Yukoners will come forward with an idea that brings the dramatic thread through the commercial piece, so that although it's going to be a commercial, it will also be a bit of a drama series.

Hopefully we will take it down to three of the best concepts, and then we'll engage the services of an expert script editor to work with each of the three. We'll have the resources to hire them to do the development because there's a big labour component to this as well. At the end we'll be able to select the best one, which would then go forward and there would be crew, producer, and director development. There would be that opportunity for all three of the people.

[Greg Rickford, Conservative, Kenora, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Very good.

Thank you, Mr. Rickford and Ms. Dunlop.

Now we'll go to our second round. We'll begin with Mr. Bagnell, for five minutes.

Mr. Bagnell.

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Thank you.

It's great you could all be here, and it's great that members are here to hear you.

Dan, Greg asked my question, so....

Barbara, if the federal government could do one thing different or improve one thing to help the film industry, what would that be? Could you think about that for a minute while I ask Andrew and Alex a question?

Andrew, as someone was saying today, we have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country and higher than average skills. Things are pretty rosy.

But even in good economies, good places, there are people who fall between the cracks. Your program is tremendous. It has been brought up in Parliament. You're dealing with some people who could otherwise fall between the cracks very seriously. There would be huge problems and expense for society. It's a very valuable function you are performing.

Getting down to the nitty-gritty, are you getting the funding you need to continue on even at your present level? Is it assured into the future? What is the status of this wonderful program?

[Andrew Finton]

Well, right now our beginner program, which is funded through Service Canada, is sunsetting on March 31. We have no commitment past then. We're working on a request for a three-year contribution from Service Canada, although we've yet to get a three-year contribution. We normally work year to year with them.

We do have a contribution agreement with the territorial government for three years, but we've realized that the staffing that's allocated—we have 2.75 full-time positions—is nowhere near enough to meet the needs. That's supposed to include the executive director, the counsellor, the artist. We really have about seven staff positions that we're trying to eke out. People are working one day or a half a day a week in order to do it.

Although we haven't got a signed contract yet, we are waiting to receive funding for a five-year contract from NCPC, the National Crime Prevention Centre, with the objective of taking the program we're offering to try to do more work in the communities and expand beyond.

As I said, I think what we've done in the last five years is to prove that it's doable. The question now is whether we can find the funding to make it available to a larger group and put the resources behind it that it's going to need to be really successful.

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Thank you. We'll do what we can to make sure you get that funding.

Alex, you made a really important point, which I made to the minister and Dawson City made. Our committee is going to Whitehorse, Yellowknife, and Iqaluit, but the economies are totally different in the rural areas, as you said. Some of the committee members haven't even been to the Yukon before.

Can you expand on that and tell them what it's like in some of the rural communities, the dramatic differences?

[Alex Furlong]

I'll just give you one example, Mr. Bagnell. If the members of the committee can remember...and when I say that our communities and our aboriginal population are living in poverty.... We had the Canadian Auto Workers go to Carmacks to essentially fix their wells and drinking water, and in my opinion, and in my colleagues' opinion in the labour movement, it's shameful that the labour movement is fulfilling, really, the obligations of both the federal and territorial governments. That's just an example.

When you have our territory and you have 26,000 to 28,000 people who live in the territory, and you have 23,000 in Whitehorse, and when we talk about Statistics Canada and those statistics being skewed, we don't pay enough attention to the rural communities to really have an understanding.

It would just take one trip to some of our rural communities, like a lot of rural communities in Canada, to see what the difference is between a rural community and an urban community. When ordinary citizens have to take responsibility for drinking water, health and social services, and filling in those gaps.... We have a lot of self-government agreements and a lot of things are set out, but really, when it comes down to it, we have our rural communities suffering to a great degree, and we need to do more.

The total responsibility is not on government. Our communities certainly have to take a more active role, but primarily, governments really need to look at some of the things that we've highlighted around health and social services and the territorial financing formula, and increasing that to make a viable and big difference.

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Can Barbara answer that question I asked at the beginning?

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

You have 20 seconds--make it 30. We're being generous tonight.

[Barbara Dunlop]

Thank you.

A producer is in town right now working on Anash and the Legacy of the Sun Rock, and actually has 10 different funders in that production. I think it's a challenge for producers in Canada to go to so many different organizations to get public money in order to film their project. If there were a way to smooth that out so they could spend less time on all of the funding mechanisms and more time on working on their film production, I think that would serve us all well.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Bagnell.

We'll go to Mr. Duncan for five minutes.

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

Thank you very much.

My first question is for Barbara. Do you know Joan Miller?

[Barbara Dunlop]

Yes, I do.

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

Then we can talk the same language, because I've had lots of discussions with Joan over the years. You display the same energy level as she does. For the record, she's with the Vancouver Island North Film Commission. There are a lot of things happening. She would be very jealous of the $635,000 CAF funding you received in May of this year--

[Barbara Dunlop]

I haven't told her.

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

--which is very exciting. Can I assume that funding announcement is what's paying for the...you mentioned the 13 advertisements. Is all of that money dedicated to that one project?

[Barbara Dunlop]

Yes, part of it is dedicated to the development of the webisodes, and the Film and Sound Commission is also contributing some money. Some of it will be for the initial ad placements, and then we'll just roll it into our ongoing marketing efforts at the Film and Sound Commission.

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

You talked about a rebate for Yukon Territory filmmaking. How does that compare to some of your competitive jurisdictions like British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, etc.?

[Barbara Dunlop]

I think we're pretty competitive. We're pretty much on par with Ontario and Quebec right now, although I would like to point out that we announced ours two months before they announced theirs, so we assume they copied us. It's a 25% rebate on your Yukon spending for location servicing productions. If there's a Yukon producer or co-producer, it's a 30% rebate.

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

As a film commission, do you have an inventory of special sites already done for the Yukon that you can provide for outside film interests?

[Barbara Dunlop]

Yes, we do. We actually have a software package that gives us the ability to do a customized website in a very short time showing whatever film locations you might be interested in. And we're always updating our library. We're sending scouts out to take pictures every year, so if someone calls at 4:55 p.m. on a Friday and says they need particular locations and they're looking at Yukon, within half an hour we can have something down in L.A.

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

Thank you.

I'll move to Andrew next. You piqued my interest greatly when you mentioned Emily Carr, because one week ago I was at Emily Carr making an announcement there and I was totally amazed at the marriage between traditional art and contemporary technology. I mean, there's a student body that's around 1,600, I think, equal and full time as opposed to your 24. It's a huge complex. They also have an aboriginal program there run by Brenda Crabtree that has about 25 students. When you started talking about social issues, and I think you described it as wraparound servicing for the student body, that's exactly where she finds herself as well. She has done this now for about nine years, so there's quite an experience level there.

Do you know her?

[Andrew Finton]

I don't actually, no. It's interesting you brought up Emily Carr. Yesterday, I was in the office talking and all of a sudden I heard all of the students applauding, and I don't think I've ever heard them do that before. One of our senior students who is working on the totem pole got accepted at Emily Carr.

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

That's astounding. It's very good news. They accept one out of seven applicants. It sounds like you're in a position where you can't intake everybody who wants to attend as well.

What was astounding to me, because I was a little out of touch, I suppose, is the fact that the major corporations are beating down the door at Emily Carr because the people who are being schooled there think out of the box, and they have a skill set that people who were schooled the way I was, which was in logic and other things...I mean, it's a different creativity, and it's something that's now in demand by major corporations.

All I can say is that what you're doing is wonderful. You did describe the difference between taking in people who are post-secondary as opposed to people who haven't got to grade 12. I'm wondering if there is a way to marry what you're doing with achieving a skill level that is equivalent to post-secondary. I mean, how do you bridge that gap, particularly when want you to move, which I assume will be an evolution--you'll want to go from traditional into contemporary as well--when you want to try to marry those two? Have you thought about that?

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

We're over time now. I know it's sometimes difficult to do, but if you could make it into a compressed response, that would great.

Thanks, Andrew.