C-10 End of Friday -- Where It Stands

THIS IS NEAR as I can tell, as of about 5 p.m. ET.

According to Gary Harvey (Robson Arms,) who's had direct contact with the Senate, C-10 is now going back to the banking committee. (The relevant thread is here, in the comments.) Others are saying this means that the bill has been suspended from its third reading. That's not confirmed, but that's my understanding of what happens under our parliamentary system when something is referred back to committee. Remember, the Liberals have a Majority in the Senate, not the Conservatives. So this may be one of those few cases where the Senate actually is able to do something.

This afternoon, the Writers Guild of Canada sent out this release:

Writers Guild of Canada Calls for Public Consultation

on Film and Television Tax Credit Guidelines

For Immediate Release

February 29, 2008 – Toronto – Among the amendments to the country’s Income Tax Act currently before Senate is legislation charging the Department of Heritage with the creation of new guidelines that could bring further instability and bureaucracy to the film and television industry in Canada. The proposed new guidelines will define what is “contrary to public policy,” and provide the power to retroactively revoke tax credits for those productions deemed to fall within that definition.

The WGC learned in a conversation today that the Department of Heritage has already created these guidelines, expanding the criteria used for denying tax credits. These guidelines will come into effect as soon as Bill C-10 receives royal assent.

“Given that the guidelines could have far-reaching implications for the industry, we want input into the process,” says Rebecca Schechter, President, Writers Guild of Canada. “The reality is that, in Canada, securing tax credits is an essential step to a project being financed. It is not for the Department of Heritage to decide in isolation what films and TV productions will get made.”

Maureen Parker, Executive Director, Writers Guild of Canada, says that “without the ability to have confidence in the tax credit piece of the financing puzzle, there will be fewer productions in Canada. The new guidelines could cost the Canadian economy thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of production dollars each year.”

The WGC calls on the Government of Canada, the Heritage Committee and the Department of Heritage to go back to the creative community before issuing the new guidelines to discuss their necessity, and to get input on the direction they should take.

A couple of anecdotal things:

• Apparently the Governor General's office has been going crazy all day from people writing in about this. They were seriously caught off guard.
• A Facebook group that was formed soon after this broke on Thursday, Keep Your Censoring Hands off of Canadian Film and TV! No To Bill C-10! which I joined as the eighth member, has grown to over 3, 249 members. In 24 hours. There's full info there on who to write, and example letters of what you should write.
  

That, in itself is incredible, when you consider the power of the social networking site to mobilize that many people, that quickly. Here's another thing. That group of 3, 249 members (and growing) are young, educated, and urban. They are plugged in and connected. I doubt there's more than a handful of Senators in Canada who've even heard of Facebook.

The demographics of Canada are shifting -- to more urban, more sophisticated. This cohort is only going to grow in the next few years. And in Quebec, where the Conservatives made inroads last election, they care about culture pretty deeply. This thing has the potential to turn into a millstone issue for the Tories. They thought they were throwing a little culture war red meat to their base. There could be some reaping and sowing in their future.

Also, through the WGC again, I learned today that part of the changes in the Income Tax Act actually grew out of industry consultations, including some changes to rules that the WGC was in favor of. But typically, in the execution, the government went for top-down and hamfisted:

The Income Tax Act has contained a provision that permits CAVCO to deny certification to any film or video production that is “…contrary to public policy” since 1997. In 2003, CAVCO and other Departments, including Heritage and Finance proposed amendments to the legislation which included a few things the WGC lobbied for.

#1 Section 125.4 (1) of the Act outlines an expansion of the base of the tax credit to now include development of script material within two years before the first day of principal photography, whereas previously, it was only the final draft included in the tax credit. This will encourage more to be spent on Canadian writers in development because the producers will get an enhanced credit for it.

The other thing we lobbied for is that the identity of all film and video productions that receive tax credits be made public . Bill C-10 now contains this much needed transparency. This is another personal win for us because the WGC specifically asked for confirmation from CAVCO of films or TV productions certified as a Canadian. We have been very concerned about productions written by non Canadians (and less than 6 points) qualifying as Canadian content. We want to ensure that our tax dollars are supporting productions written by a Canadian citizens or “true” landed immigrant - those who actually reside in Canada.

It's typical that something that started with a call for greater transparency somewhere along the way led to the Heritage Committee drawing up guidelines, by themselves, behind closed doors. Welcome to Canada.

The WGC, through back channels and official contacts made the following request:

We would like a formal assurance that the artistic community will have input in the guidelines and that the guidelines will not by influenced a particular ideology or social agenda.

They also spoke to various MP's and political party staff. Letters are coming in from all over. The advice the WGC received was to request an appearance in front of the banking committee. That's what they're doing.

Brian Anthony of the Directors Guild of Canada sent out this release this afternoon:

When we became aware of this legislation yesterday, we immediately sprang into action and wrote to the Minister of Canadian Heritage expressing our concern and urging her in the strongest possible terms to reconsider and revoke this amendment. We also issued a press release, which has been posted on the DGC web site for your reference. I then contacted a number of Senators, including a couple of members of the Senate Banking Committee and its Clerk. The good news is that Bill C-10 has been referred back to the Banking Committee and its members will decide next week whether or not they wish to hear witnesses. I have asked to appear before the committee if it does indeed decide to hold hearings, and other interested parties from our sector will want to be involved as well.

The concern that we raised in the letter to the Minister and in the press release is that this broad provision could not only have a chilling effect on artistic expression but could also discourage investment in film and television production. You will be interested to know that the proposed measure applies only to Canadian film and television productions and not to service productions.

So that's the answer to that question. In other words, this bonehead government is actually trying to make the burden on Canadian producers harder, while giving U.S. producers a pass.

The optics just get worse and worse on this thing.

In any case, now's the time keep the pressure on. Write the P.M. and your MP and the Culture Critics for all the major parties, if you haven't done so already. Call into talk radio. Write letters to the editor. Call your constituent office and ask what they're doing about this. For Godsake...speak up!

This thing almost, almost went through without a peep. And if we've learned one thing about this government is that they have no problem acting like they have a huge majority, when they don't.

Now I hear rumors that there may be YouTube videos about to be made of those most offensive, gratuitously violent tales -- you know, from the Bible and stuff. Exxxxxcelllent.

Poor Tories. They really have no idea about this whole 21st century thing, do they?

Keep the pressure up. Remember -- these guys have to fight an election in a few months. Let them do that wearing the censorship scarlet letter.