OTTAWA -- Canadian content rules in film and television need a dramatic overhaul and should be centralized under one federal organization, says a report commissioned by the Heritage Department. The convoluted points system to determine Canadian content has stayed relatively unchanged for 30 years and is frequently working at cross-purposes, says the report by Francois Macerola.
"It was time to address these problems," Macerola said yesterday.
"You know very well that the current Cancon (Canadian content) system was fragmented and, as a result, lacks coherence."
Macerola, a former head of both the National Film Board and Telefilm Canada, recommends replacing the points system with one based more heavily upon creative expenditures, including weighted categories for money spent on authors, creative collaborators, performers and technicians.
Productions should be eligible for greater tax and direct government support as their Canadian content increases.
Canadian ownership rules should remain and new rules be enacted requiring the top three creative positions of any production -- writer, director and lead performer -- be Canadian, subject to a series of options "providing the necessary flexibility for producers."
"The more Canadian you are, the more public benefits you can access," said Macerola.
"If you want to be less Canadian, there's a price to pay."
Subject matter should be left solely to the creators of a production, Macerola recommends.
He also would like an exemption on the rule limiting TV advertising to 12 minutes per hour to permit extra ads promoting Canadian feature films.
This is the fourth report released this year on the state of the Canadian television industry and even the industry players appear swamped by the deluge.
Halifax-based producer Wayne Grigsby says he's not sure how all the studies will fit together, although clearly the common thread is a contention that the current "chaotic" funding system needs to be fixed.
"Whether laying in another level of bureaucrats to make decisions is going to help, I don't know," he said from the set of his new series for W, A Guy and a Girl.
"Cleaner and simpler and more co-ordinated would be a definite blessing and make life easier for everyone involved. Surely to God we can find a simpler way to do this."
That's precisely the failure of the Macerola report, said Brian Topp, executive director of ACTRA Toronto Performers, the actors union.
Canadian content rules need to be simpler, tighter and clearer, he said.
"This report takes us in exactly the opposite direction. The proposed new rules are more complex, more permissive and would dilute, not strengthen, Canadian content."
Topp contends the Macerola proposal would allow productions with lead foreign actors, writers and directors to be defined as Cancon and suggests the report be shelved as a deserving addition to the government's collection of unhelpful studies.
