Finance committee  Just briefly, they've already had to cut 175 hours of programming in English CBC for this year's budget. They're going to have to cut more hours of programming going forward. Most of that is independently produced, so those are clear-cut jobs that aren't going to be there.

Finance committee  I'll start with the CBC. It does have a hybrid funding model. It has to find other resources. That's why it needs ad revenue—it has to get large audiences for its programs to get that ad revenue. It has the same need for audiences that the private broadcasters have, so I'm not r

Finance committee  I have to agree with Madam Samson that really our investment in Canadian production develops our industry, which means the crews. We have world-class crews. So yes, people will come here. We've got the studios. We've got all of that infrastructure for the foreign investment, but

Finance committee  Yes, it does.

Finance committee  I do believe it's very important to maintain an industry. We have to have our own domestic industry and not evolve into branch plants so that we only have service work. It requires a certain level of funding to be able to keep the domestic talent here; otherwise they'll just go t

Finance committee  A feature film can take six to 10 years before you can get it off the ground. Some of that's financing, but it's also just the creative work it takes. That's where it starts, and we can't get anywhere else.

Finance committee  —that we have come to rely on. Thank you for your time. We look forward to answering any questions you have.

Finance committee  Good afternoon, members of the finance committee. My name is Kelly Lynne Ashton, and I am the director of policy of the Writers Guild of Canada. Thank you for inviting the Writers Guild to appear before you today. We are the national association representing more than 2,000 pro

Canadian Heritage committee  What we're looking at are workshops. That is something that can be done for writing. The importance in story-based games comes from plots and character. Screenwriters who have been working on drama series and comedy series, that's what they know, and they've developed a skill bas

Canadian Heritage committee  One of the things we're looking at is seeing where the real problem is and targeting those real areas. For writing, we have talented people here. Let's have intermediate level training to get those people into the video game sector.

Canadian Heritage committee  The WGC believes that video game writing is an emerging sector within our jurisdiction. We see video game companies engaging mainstream drama and comedy screenwriters, and we see young screenwriters choosing to explore a career in video game writing. This committee has asked wh

Canadian Heritage committee  It's the same. The 26 is the same; it's for all of Canada.

Canadian Heritage committee  May I just clarify? The commission—

Canadian Heritage committee  We also don't know that there will be sufficient money at the Canada Media Fund to adequately support the new programs funded under the new TV policy. Each one of the CMF's programs is oversubscribed. You heard from the CMF that the revenues from the cable and satellite compani

Canadian Heritage committee  When we talk about an ISP levy, this would be under the Broadcasting Act. All carriers of the content should make an appropriate contribution to the creation of the content. That was our argument in front of the new media hearings. There are still outstanding issues on that in fr