Some possible solutions to the Canadian Television Fund’s governance woes

Last year the board of the Canadian Television Fund (CTF) recognized that the current structure of the fund needed to be reviewed and asked (public administration consultants) François Colbert and David Silcox to look at the governance issues surrounding it. (CCR, April 27/00). to change. In particular, they suggested that the Equity and Licence Fee Programs be rolled into a single administration under the supervision of a version of the existing CTF public-private sector board. The government evaluation of the CTF done by KPMG drew parallel conclusions. After performing a detailed analysis of the fund's operation over the last few years, KPMG agreed strongly that one board and one administration should replace the current arrangements. Like Silcox and Colbert, their principle preoccupation was accountability - when more than one person or organization is accountable, no one is accountable. Let me begin by saying that broadly I agree with Silcox and Colbert. There is one area, however, where the Silcox-Colbert and KPMG reports may be misguided. They suggest that the Equity Investment Program be moved out from Telefilm into a unified television organization separate from Telefilm's other activities in the area of new media and film. I am not sure this is the wisest course. It is hard to see why, at precisely the time that all these media are converging, we would place them in separate organizations. Short films and video are already being sold on the Internet; television is going interactive with data applications being embedded in the programming; and video streaming is in the process of creating whole new products and offers for the computer that are often referred to as virtual channels. The only way we will be able to ensure that Canadian stories can be told effectively in these new spaces is to ensure that we stay ahead of U.S. and European developments. This will require us to be able continuously to update our financial subsidy arrangements to keep pace with the current rapid changes in markets and technology. Under these circumstances, the best course is to address the governance issue but not to put television in a ghetto by itself. More broadly, whatever government decides with respect to this matter, I believe that it should follow three key principles in resolving the question: There should be one board. It must, however, be a CTF-type board with both public and private sector members. There should be one chief executive appointed by the board and responsible for all of the fund's various programs. This is a key requirement since accountability requires a continuous chain of responsibility without breaks in any of the links. The new organization must embrace all the financial support programs for television, new media and film. This would also ensure that new media and film benefit from the same public-private sector arrangements as television. Although there are a number of ways that the fund could be restructured on the basis of these principles, perhaps the simplest and most straightforward method would be simply to consider establishing a new organization. Ideally this organization would not be a Crown corporation or quasi-governmental agency; rather it would be structured and operated as a private, not-for-profit venture. This would ensure that it has the necessary flexibility to be able to adapt rapidly to changing circumstances, which is absolutely crucial if the support programs are going to be able to change as the markets do. Richard Stursberg is chair of the Canadian Television Fund. The above column is an excerpt from his speech at the CFTPA Banff Awards Lunch, held June 14 at the Banff Television Festival. Mr. Stursberg stressed that the above comments are his personal views, and not those of the CTF board. For a copy of Mr. Stursberg's speech, email us your request at newsdesk@decima.ca.

Some possible solutions to the Canadian Television Fund’s governance woes

Broadcast | 06/22/2000 4:00 am EDT

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