Ad hoc producers coalition presses demands in Ottawa for fund renewal

The federal government will likely find it easier to acquiesce to the requests of Canada’s new media sector as those companies benefit from the help of a professional lobbyist and the loose coalition of regional associations formed recently shows signs of becoming a more powerful voice on Parliament Hill. The as-yet unnamed group recently held a series of meetings in Ottawa arranged with the help of The Strategy Group’s Beatrice Raffoul, and will likely be back in town in the near future to press its concerns at the highest ministerial levels. This month in Ottawa, Ian Kelso, head of the New Media Business Association (NMBA), Lynda Brown, head of New Media BC, Jean-Pierre Faucher of the Alliance numériQC and Marc Séguin of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA) met with officials including Canadian Heritage Parliamentary secretary Sarmite Bulte, Bloc Québecois culture critic Maka Kotto, staff in Conservative party culture critic Bev Oda’s office and senior bureaucrats. Steven Comeau has also been instrumental in championing the new coalition and helping arrange meetings, wearing hats both as an Eastern Canada independent producer, as well as a key CFTPA activist. The group is pressing Ottawa to renew the Tomorrow Starts Today program, under which the Canadian Culture Online (CCOP) initiative and the Telefilm Canada Canada New Media Fund (CNMF) programs have both been running since 2001. That program will lapse next spring, putting millions of dollars earmarked for new media in jeopardy. The program, including the CNMF, is running on one-year reprieve funding (CNM, March 17/04). The CNMF has pumped around $9 million per year into the industry since being announced in December 2001, but again faces a hiatus with no assurances of renewal similar to the situation in 2000-2001 when Telefilm and Ernst & Young worked to revise the fund to respond to producer concerns over its structure (CNM, Dec. 13/01 & Feb. 21/01). The coalition’s top concern is to renew the CNMF at a level recommended by David Ellis of Omnia Communications Inc. – around $30 million per year (CNM, June 13/03). There are indications that an upcoming report by the CCOP advisory board, which will likely take several weeks longer to be made public than Heritage staff earlier indicated, will support the fatter envelope recommended by Ellis. The recommendation also enjoys the support of senior Heritage and Telefilm staff, but convincing Ottawa to approve the increase will require significant political support. To help arrange that support, the services of lobbyist Raffoul were made available by the CFTPA, which has her on a retainer. The availability of professional lobbying help marks a significant point in the new media industry’s development in Canada as the predominantly Toronto-based industry makes inroads in the complicated maze of federal politics. Efforts by new media producers until now have been marked by a degree of in-fighting at times, the failure of the Interactive Multimedia Producers Association of Canada (IMPAC) to stay afloat as a single point of contact (CNM, Oct. 18/01), and the difficulty of defining the young industry. Judging by comments made to Canadian NEW MEDIA by Raffoul and Kelso, some of those hurdles appear to be easing. Kelso says the group was well received in Ottawa, and that it has solidified some important support. "We got a really, really great reception from everyone we spoke to. Everyone was up on the file and everyone seemed very open to our message. A couple of people said they were definitely our allies. I think we just have to communicate what this industry is and where it’s going, and help them to understand the industry’s importance to Canada," says Kelso. He says renewing the fund is critical to the industry’s success. To date, he notes, it has resulted in the emergence of profitable new media companies that continue to create profits and jobs, but more is needed. "They know what the demand is and they know the level of investment has not changed over the course of the last four years. (The CNMF) has not kept tune with an industry that’s bursting at the seams, now." Though the industry has made the same argument for the last several years, the odds of it succeeding this time are probably greater due to Raffoul’s involvement, made possible by the support of the CFTPA. She says her role is to help the coalition navigate Ottawa’s corridors, and that her participation can also help take the load off the backs of the producers who make up the associations. Until now, the various lobbying efforts launched by producers – on files such as fighting cuts to the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund and previous changes to the Telefilm funding model – have largely been carried out by volunteers who also have the primary responsibility for running their firms. Says Raffoul: "They usually do not have the human resource power available to do this. Also, if you’ve got all these companies acting individually, you don’t have the same influence because, basically, you’re not going to be able to get around to see everybody. They just won’t have time. So, correctly, the various associations have grouped and so now we can ask for one meeting and we go in there and say, ‘hey, this is who we represent.’ And, where a firm like mine, The Strategies Group, and myself come in is to then help them navigate based on what it is that is the priority at the time. Because, it can evolve and sometimes your meetings are going to be, maybe with people in the financial sector because you’ve got those initiatives. If it’s the policy side or the renewal of programs, it’s going to be a certain grouping of people. And, people like myself know who these individuals are and who we have to get to see and can kind of cut through a lot of time." Raffoul says the timing is particularly good right now for the ad hoc coalition to begin lobbying for renewing the CCOP and CNMF as the Parliamentary committees return to work. The Tomorrow Starts Today renewal may come up for discussion as soon as November, and this recent round of meetings will keep the issue fresh in the minds of committee members. "We were beginning to lay out the case for an increase in new media and culture online because this is an industry of the new millennium. This fund was an extremely good fund and it’s a good use of public dollars and it’s certainly working. But, the reality of the landscape of the industry is that five years ago there was one reality and here we are – it’ll be five years later when we see the renewal. The landscape is totally different. The number of companies is multiplied. The leadership role that we seem to be playing in certain aspects of the digital world is quite clear. If we’re going to remain players and actually produce Canadian content and have a niche, not only here in Canada but in the world, we have to get that message to government. "In this kind of a minority government situation, you want to make sure, as well, that you’re keeping all the political parties abreast of what is important for this industry and what they can be pushing for. Because, you know, I see this industry as one where we should be able to get everybody onside…It’s up to us to do that. I was doing this initially. Now, whether the coalition decides that they want to continue that relationship with me or they want to go down some other route that’s probably, up for future discussion."

Ad hoc producers coalition presses demands in Ottawa for fund renewal

News | 10/29/2004 4:00 am EDT

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