Madam Speaker, I am pleased to speak in support of the bill to amend the Telefilm Canada Act.
Telefilm is a crown corporation that was created in 1967 to foster and promote the film industry in Canada. As technology evolved and Telefilm was assigned responsibilities in the television, new media and sound recording sectors, the corporation had to evolve and did so to meet the changing environment for media in this country and around the world. Millions of dollars in investment for productions and companies have been put forward in pursuit of that objective to bring us up to date with the 21st century media.
These investments have been bolstered by partnerships with provinces. They have contributed not only to vibrant industries in virtually every region across the country, translating not only into thousands of direct and indirect jobs, but also have created hundreds and thousands of hours of quality programming that reflects Canada to Canadians of all walks of life, of every ethnicity and race, in every region and in both official languages.
Even though the main Canadian centres of film and television production have traditionally been located in Toronto and Montreal, creative people, working in the audiovisual industry, live and work in every province and territory, work in diverse languages and reflect the almost limitless number of cultural perspectives of Canada, building capacity in every region.
The Government of Canada recognizes the value of the diversity of its citizens. It believes in the fostering and strengthening of connections and a deeper understanding of not only of our great geography and regions and our history, but also of the diversity of our peoples. Telefilm can create and build a more tolerant and progressive society. As a crown corporation, Telefilm represents these ideals well, with offices in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax. It does its utmost to encourage regional production that reflects Canadians in all their diversity, telling the stories of our nation and its history.
In 2002-03 the Canadian feature film fund, administered by Telefilm, contributed 25% of its production funding to the west, 43% to Quebec, 29% to Ontario and Nunavut and 3% to the Atlantic regions. In that same year 9% of the equity investment program, the Telefilm administered component of the Canadian television fund, was dedicated to the Atlantic region, 28% to the west, 37% to Quebec and 26% to Ontario and Nunavut. This year 39% of the Canadian new media fund administered by Telefilm was directed to projects based in Ontario and Nunavut, 29% to projects from the west and 30% to the new media projects created in Quebec and to those created in the Atlantic.
Through the music entrepreneur program, MEP, Telefilm supports independent Canadian companies in an effort to ensure the stability, sustainability and competitiveness of our sound recording industry. Through two phases of development, business planning and business plan implementation, the MEP funded 26 companies across Canada this year based on market, financial and cultural criteria. A few of these members may know of are the Children's Group from Pickering, Ontario, Justin Time Records from Montreal and Nettwerk Productions from Vancouver.
Some better known examples of regional television production supported by Telefilm include the current hit Corner Gas produced in Saskatchewan and the longstanding favourites, of I am proud, Da Vinci's Inquest and Cold Squad , both of which not only originate in Vancouver but tell stories of what is going on in Vancouver currently. In the Atlantic Region there is Made in Canada and Trailer Park Boys , which received funding through the equity investment program.
There was FranCoeur , the first Franco-Ontarian drama presented on TFO in 2003 with the help of Telefilm Canada.
In feature film Telefilm contributed to critically acclaimed Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner by Zacharias Kunuk. The title was the first Canadian film shot in Inuktitut through the Canadian television fund. This is what we mean when we present the diversity of our people and our regions and tell our stories to Canadians in the way only Canadians can, which is so very unique in any country in the world. This film, as we know, won the coveted Golden Camera Award for a first feature at the 2001 Cannes International Film Festival, and will hopefully clear the path for more features of our great northern cultures in years to come.
Other Telefilm supported films exploring diverse cultural perspectives include Bollywood/Hollywood by Deepa Mehta, and if members have not seen it, it is worth seeing, Mambo Italiano by Émile Gaudreault, Ararat by Atom Egoyan, Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity by Mina Shum, Khaled by Asghar Massombagi and L'Ange de goudron by Denis Chouinard.
Most of these films listed performed very well at the Canadian box office and abroad. For example, Mambo Italiano , and again I do not know if members have seen it, is hilarious. It tells about the Italian community in Canada and the struggles of trying to maintain its culture in a changing world.
In closing, I wish to congratulate Telefilm Canada for its excellent record in providing support to all octaves of creative voice in Canada throughout the decades. I ask hon. members to support the motion to refer the bill to committee before second reading.