Canada's TV industry looking to 2006 for relief from perennial funding crisis

TORONTO (CP) - Everybody agrees that Degrassi: The Next Generation and Corner Gas are breakout TV hits - so why isn't Canada producing more of them? While there seems to be no shortage of talent - even given the traditional brain drain to Hollywood - the country's financing model for Cancon may be in need of serious repair as the industry looks ahead to 2006.

Producers, broadcasters and cultural patriots say they intend to do their best to make funding for quality homegrown television fare a high-profile issue in the current federal election campaign.

Before Parliament was dissolved, Heritage Minister Liza Frulla doled out millions for various high arts programs, but not a word about the Canadian Television Fund, that public-private sector fount of money for domestic TV budgets.

So who is going to tell our stories now, the industry players moan?

"Broadcasters are working with less, everybody's working with less," laments Halifax-based Wayne Grigsby, writer-producer of the 2002 four-hour Trudeau miniseries on CBC and this fall's prequel.

"It just doesn't get better, that's all. The pressure's always there (and) getting pretty heavy."

Stephen Waddell, president of ACTRA, the actors' union, says they've been lobbying Ottawa intensely to ensure preserving and promoting Canadian culture remains on the agenda.

"We're going to be also demanding that the four parties show us what they are going to do with respect to culture in their election platforms. So we'll be holding the parties' feet to the fire in respect of their commitments."

Chris Haddock, creator and producer of the classy CBC drama series Da Vinci's City Hall - formerly Da Vinci's Inquest, which has seen its ratings dip into the 300,000 neighbourhood - says it's equally important to fund Canadian drama for export.

"The Americans got this down pat, they're all about hype, they know all about it, they ship those films abroad. This is how they build their image of themselves," Haddock says.

"We don't seem to understand this politically that if you want to have Canada's voice in the world, you've got to get Canada's voice out in the world."

Each spring, like some bizarre lottery, producers are told that they're getting Canadian Television Fund money and how much. They then must, with breakneck speed, rush into production over the summer, so they can get their first episodes on the air for the fall launch period. Sometimes it's only 13 episodes, or even six.

Among the few truly successful domestic series are the CTV teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation and the prairie sitcom Corner Gas, which regularly nets close to two million viewers per episode.

Degrassi producer Linda Schuyler indicates it's not so much the amount of money that's the problem but the need for consistency, for a long-range, stable commitment from those holding the purse strings.

"That's the best gift the government could give," Schuyler says. "If we know we've got that, then the industry can look at a five-year plan. Right now our industry scrambles from year to year (and) the rules as to how that money will be dispensed change every year."

It's actually been five years now that the industry has been wringing its hands over the issue of funding. Back in 1999 the CRTC, the federal broadcast regulator, relaxed the rules for what constitutes acceptable domestic drama content. Private broadcasters fled from the traditional but costly series format, opting instead for cheaper reality shows, quick movies of the week and more glossier U.S. imports. The CBC, meanwhile, was emerging from a decade in which its usual federal dole was gutted like a fish.

There's also the age-old gap between quality and popularity. At the recent Gemini Awards, the best drama series was The Eleventh Hour, which was already cancelled because of low viewership. Producer Peter Simpson sniffed that they had been unable to "whore" themselves with sufficient "T-A" content to draw a suitable viewership.

"Quality is a great thing to do, but you want to feel people are appreciative of your work, you want to see some numbers," Simpson says. "And if you can't put numbers on the board you just have to say well . . . move on to other things."

Ian Morrison, spokesman for the watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, believes whoever forms the next government will feel pushed to deal with the funding issue, because Canadians want Canadian programming.

"They love American entertainment programming but they like to have some shelf space for Canada at the same time."

But Morrison makes an interesting point about tax subsidies. He says they lower the cost of domestic productions, which lowers the cost for the private broadcasters to acquire them which, in turn, leaves them with more money to buy U.S. imports.

"So you could make the case that some of the subsidy is going to Hollywood!" he said.

© The Canadian Press, 2005