Finance committee  The primary instruments of direct investment on the part of the federal government are such agencies as Telefilm Canada. Its level of support has been stalled for a number of years, so there's been a real-dollar decline there. When you look at the rising demand and the flatlining

Finance committee  I'm not certain. It goes back into the mists of time. As you know, in the early days of federal involvement in encouraging film and television production there was a 100% capital cost allowance program--that goes back to the seventies. That generated a whole lot of film and telef

Finance committee  Sure. At the moment, in terms of the federal tax credit program, you can claim labour costs for tax credit purposes, but you cannot claim other non-labour costs such as equipment rental, studio rental, and so on. Quebec and Ontario--Ontario following Quebec's example--have move

Finance committee  Yes, so they reduced it to 50%. Then they wound it up and replaced it with the labour cost tax credit. I think the feeling was that it was putting our people to work, but the costs associated with film and television production are much more complex and more broadly based than si

Finance committee  The Ontario government hasn't provided all the detail yet. I think they're still sorting it out. I think in the case of Quebec, it's sort of doubling the eligible costs, which is welcome news. Now, the provincial tax credit regimes work on the assumption, and they monitor this

Finance committee  The federal tax credit regime is limited to labour costs at the moment. What we would like to see the federal government do is follow the example of Ontario and Quebec--that is, include other legitimate costs as well, such as equipment rental and so on. You would have a more holi

Finance committee  Mr. Chairman, honourable members of the Standing Committee on Finance, my name is Brian Anthony. I'm the national executive director and chief executive officer of the Directors Guild of Canada. I wish to thank you for this greatly appreciated opportunity to appear before you as

Canadian Heritage committee  Our members went through a very bad year last year. As you know, all sorts of factors adversely affected our industry: a writers' strike in the United States, a possible actors' strike, the rising Canadian dollar. Remember when it went over 100 cents? It scared off a lot of produ

Canadian Heritage committee  If I understand the question correctly--and I'm not sure I do--you're asking about what we're hearing from our members?

Canadian Heritage committee  Very short. Charles Darwin discovered much to his surprise that it wasn't the biggest and the strongest and the brightest that necessarily prevailed, it was those creatures who were most able to adapt to change. And our industry is a very agile industry that is able to adapt to

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you for your questions, Dr. Fry. I'll speak to the first question and ask my colleague to speak to the second one. We've looked at a number of ways of strengthening the broadcasting industry and local stations that the committee and the CRTC could consider. For example, th

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the standing committee. My name is Brian Anthony and I'm the national executive director and chief executive officer of the DGC. With me is our outside counsel, Mr. Grant Buchanan, a partner in the law firm of McCarthy Tétrault. We would