TORONTO – The CRTC has corrected a portion of its controversial Certified Independent Production Funds (CIPFs) policy framework decision after being called out on a misattributed quote by the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) early Thursday.
In a statement entitled “CRTC Gets the Facts Wrong”, WGC publicly questioned “the rigour” of the CRTC process that erroneously claimed that the Canadian Media Fund (CMF) argued in favour of reducing the points needed for Canadian productions to receive funding from the CIPFs to six.
“In fact, the CMF didn’t say any of that”, said the WGC. “Documents on the public record of this proceeding, submitted by the CMF and available on the CRTC’s website, show that the CMF never made these arguments, nor did it even address the issue in any substantive way.
“The CMF is a well-established and respected funding body, whose views on the subject would presumably carry significant weight in a proceeding such as this. This makes the misattribution particularly concerning, and the WGC believes the error calls into question the rigour of this CRTC process.”
After tweets back and forth between the WGC and the CRTC, the Commission corrected the decision, attributing the quote to the Rogers Group of Funds.
The Commission has not yet published an Erratum over the mistake, but it has fixed the copy of the decision. And, for what it's worth, the CMF has told media outlets that it is not bothered by the decision and plans to continue to fund only eight- and 10-point productions.
