The Canada Media Fund (CMF) last week published the third edition of its Demographic Report, which shows representation of diverse communities across CMF’s funding programs has steadily increased over the last three years.
The latest report is based on data collected from individuals who self-identified through the CMF’s PERSONA-ID system for funding programs in the 2024-2025 fiscal year. The CMF said the PERSONA-ID registry grew by 32 per cent since last year and now includes more than 15,000 industry professionals.
While overall representation of diverse communities has shown a steady increase, particularly among persons with disabilities and in interactive digital media (IDM) projects, representation has stabilized for some groups, especially Black and racialized communities working in linear content and Indigenous creators in IDM, according to the CMF’s report.
The CMF noted that knowing who gets funding is only part of the picture — how much they receive matters just as much. For projects led by women and members of diverse communities, the share of funding did not always match the proportion of supported projects, especially in drama productions and in larger-budget productions, according to the report.
Representation varies significantly across Canada’s regions, the CMF report found. For example, the Prairies have the highest Indigenous representation in linear projects, while Ontario and Quebec lag on that measure. The CMF said these differences point to both unique regional strengths and persistent structural barriers that may require tailored strategies.
Children and youth projects have seen high success from some communities, according to the report. Women continue to hold more key roles than men in children and youth projects despite having less prevalent ownership. Diverse communities are trending upward in English-language children and youth projects; however, they remain limited in French-language, highlighting uneven opportunities across markets, according to the CMF.
In 2024-2025, approximately half of CMF-funded projects featured storylines about Indigenous and equity-deserving communities or environmental issues, which is evidence of broader perspectives entering the content slate, the CMF said. More comprehensive on-screen representation and audience data will be helpful in fully understanding how these storytelling patterns relate to audience engagement, the CMF added.
The CMF’s demographic report is part of its Analytics and Strategic Insights (ASI) mandate on data equity, which analyzes demographic data to produce insights that support the CMF’s Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility (EDIA) objectives.
“This report is a powerful reminder of the CMF’s commitment to transparency and using data to drive learning, accountability, and continuous improvement,” said Joy Loewen, the CMF’s vice president of industry development, in a press release. “By regularly examining who is accessing our funding and how, we gain clearer insight into where progress is happening and where more focus is needed. This work is essential to advancing equity across the industry and responds to actions identified in our 2024-2027 EDIA Strategy, All In: Embedding Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the audiovisual industry.”
Photo of the cast of Macy Murdoch borrowed from the CMF’s website
