Survey says 200 camera-ready projects and nearly 20,000 jobs are in jeopardy without government help
OTTAWA and MONTREAL – Surveys conducted by Canada’s French and English media producers’ associations show without swift government action to address the lack of Covid-19 insurance coverage available for producers, $1 billion worth of production could vanish.
Producers responding to surveys from the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) and the Association québécoise de la production médiatique (AQPM), identified 214 camera-ready film and TV projects that can’t move forward because insurance companies refuse to offer coverage against Covid-19. These productions would directly generate 19,560 jobs, says the press release.
A joint CMPA and AQPM proposal for the creation of a government-backed insurance program was submitted to the federal government in June, which we reported on here. The producers are still waiting on an answer, however.
“The two groups say the sector is now facing a crisis that will have lasting negative consequences and are urging the federal government to intervene before it’s too late,” reads the release.
“We’ve met with government officials across multiple ministries to discuss our proposal, and although they acknowledge the urgency of this issue, months have passed without any action,” said CMPA president and CEO Reynolds Mastin. “While governments in the United Kingdom, Australia, France and elsewhere have addressed the insurance issue for their production sectors, producers in Canada are losing millions – and in some cases facing bankruptcy – because of the lack of a federal program.”
“The implementation of a federal government-backed insurance program is the missing piece that would allow hundreds of productions to come to life and create thousands of jobs for creators and crew members,” added Hélène Messier, president and CEO of the AQPM. “Because of this unjustifiable delay, the federal government is not only jeopardizing the economic prosperity of an entire sector, but drastically reducing the number of Canadian productions on our screens in the coming months to the benefit of foreign productions.”
The CMPA and AQPM independently conducted surveys of their members between August 31 to September 9, 2020. The surveys were completed by a total of 148 production companies across Canada. Summaries of the surveys’ findings are below.
