Canadian Heritage committee  Well, sure, piracy is a huge issue. It's an issue not only in Canada but also right around the world. What piracy does is defeat the economics of production and distribution. When people are stealing product, they're not paying for it, and the suppliers, the producers, the studio

Canadian Heritage committee  Clearly, I would echo the comments that Jim and Sarah have both made, but would like to make one other point. In terms of the CBC and other Canadian broadcasters, we're not seeing Canadian feature films, whether they're high-budget or low-budget or no-budget, being exhibited by

Canadian Heritage committee  They're trying an experiment with Canadian content and they've got a couple of experiments in which they're using Canadian-based materials but otherwise allowing for more flexibility. It's useful that they're suggesting that Canadian producers and distributors consider Canadian

Canadian Heritage committee  That said, we have our own criticism of the CBC. It also can do more, in our view, to promote Canadian production. We certainly would like it to promote more Canadian dramatic production in particular.

Canadian Heritage committee  Sarah, do you want to take it?

Canadian Heritage committee  We wish that the CBC would make the same commitment to Canadian productions that Radio-Canada does. We wish also that the parliamentary appropriations to the CBC would be restored. It's a death by a thousand cuts at CBC. It's unfortunate. It's our national public broadcaster. It,

Canadian Heritage committee  As you identify, digital technologies have had a significant impact on production in this country. We actually see fewer feature films being done these days and, obviously, much more digital work being done. Jim will tell you in his presentation that the amount of television pro

Canadian Heritage committee  It's meant that there is definitely a lot more production. As far as professional performers are concerned, we're getting our share, but could get more. What we're finding too—and Jim and I were talking about this before we started—is that with TiP, our Toronto indie production p

Canadian Heritage committee  Sure, we recognize that. It has certainly been the practice and policy to have predominantly U.S. performers in Canadian feature films and other Canadian content product for decades. I have been around for 45 years, and since McCabe & Mrs. Miller and Rambo, we've had U.S. pro

Canadian Heritage committee  Feature film funding in this country must place a greater emphasis on marketing and promotion. It's not enough to create Canadian stories and leave them on the shelf. They must be shared with the world. This means supporting Canadian feature films at home and abroad and finding n

Canadian Heritage committee  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 Rad

Canadian Heritage committee  Our presentation today will focus on three key points: first, the need for sustained, long-term investment in public funding instruments; second, the need to keep Canadian feature films Canadian; and third, the difficulties faced by Canadians in actually seeing Canadian films.