These achievements cannot be discussed without an honest look at the less than hospitable environment in which Canadian filmmakers work. In fact, this environment has been consistently hostile to the creation of Canadian feature films even before the government began planning active financial support for feature films in the 1960s. These statistics raise issues about the films against which Canadian features compete. The average budget of a Canadian feature fails to compare with other countries. This in turn restrains filmmakers storytelling and restricts artistic range.
Canadian filmmakers don t seek to imitate the skyrocketing budgets of Hollywood.
However, we do believe that the public and private sector must work together to foster an environment where filmmakers have access to secure financing and have the ability to set aside reasonable funds for promotion. A significant new federal investment is necessary to foster a healthy Canadian feature film industry. Existing institutions and programs must be consolidated and refocused to maximize their benefit to the feature film industry and to Canadian moviegoers. To achieve these goals, the public and private sectors must work together to ensure that the Canadian feature film industry has sufficient financial resources to make available films that Canadians and the world will want to watch. The federal government should amend the Production Services Tax Credit to ensure that only Canadian feature film producers producing Canadian feature films for theatrical release are permitted access to the program.