“I will be presenting my vision for the creative sector in September”
OKAY, FULL TRANSPARENCY, I wasn't going to scribble about this.
I went to the advertised keynote partly to hear the Minister of Canadian Heritage "discuss how digital technology is transforming our world, and explore the role of government in supporting innovation and creativity to create new opportunities to bring the best of Canada to the world.”
Yikes there's a mouthful.
Also partly because the smart money at Banff was betting that she wouldn't have anything new to say, that we would get the same old drone we've been hearing for the last 18 months about how great her government has been for culture and how much the federal Liberal government has invested… then watch people either nod off or slip away.
Now that would have been some kind of comic tragedy.
However, that didn't happen. There was no keynote address. Instead there was a relatively safe on-stage interview with Jean LaRose, APTN president and CEO – and thank goodness that LaRose was there, more on that below.
On point, Joly described her excellent trips abroad – the U.K., Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Paris and UNESCO, Italy… she might even have mentioned Luxembourg. Plus there was the Estonian(!) culture minister who confided to her that the EU's 26 countries were unlikely to succeed with any directive or legislation to rein the new reality of digital media… "it would simply not be enforceable,” she recounted.
Otherwise we did hear the stump speech from Joly about how she launched the consultation process a year ago, and shaped her advisory council soon after that. In the interim year and a half, she reported that "there has been an extraordinary evolution of the discussion regarding Canadian content and the world".
Uh, no kidding.
But hey, she does like the UK's approach (hint, hint) where economic development has driven policy and delivered 8%-plus annual growth – twice the overall UK economic growth – and we learned again that China opens one museum per day, and this is a huge opportunity for Canadians – which it is in my view, given the exciting work the NFB has underway already in the Forbidden Kingdom.
Moreover, China allows about 34 foreign films into the country a year of which two or three tend to be Canadian – and the Minister would like to see our number nudge upwards and so signed an accord to encourage same.
How that matters and compares with Disney building a $4.3 billion complex in Shanghai, I'm not certain.
“Didn't we do that cultural diversity UNESCO gig with Minister Sheila Copps a couple of decades ago?”
Moreover, Minister Joly said she has had important meetings with Google and other Silicon Valley OTT types too, and observes that "the market is disruption and international… we need to make sure we have a strong innovation agenda… (and) push cultural diversity at UNESCO".
Didn't we do that cultural diversity UNESCO gig with Minister Sheila Copps a couple of decades ago?
Then there was a palpable pause when the Minister of Canadian Heritage did an audible mind sweep for a key point she seemed to have forgotten… oh yes… lightbulb… "I will be presenting my vision for the creative sector in September… presenting a framework" recalled Joly making the critical catch just in time.
Then there was a quick segue to the Minister's sensible goodies list: new money to the Canadian book and music funds to export product, support for a gaming conference, and a reminder that there has been a $1.9 billion investment in arts and culture in 2016 (I started watching the doors).
To be fair there was a gracious acknowledgment that this sector represents 3% of Canada's GDP; and that we've developed some impressive international strengths in areas of media infrastructure, crews and talent, and stable incentives such as the tax credit system.
Then we got a full Ministerial dose of political correctness and a talk about our unique "social contract" with official bilingualism, pluralism, and the need for reconciliation with our indigenous peoples.
Sigh. Who wouldn't know that?
Twenty percent of the Canadian population is first generation immigrant, the highest in in the G8 – and our treatment of indigenous peoples has been atrocious – possibly even today with the Federal government currently twisting in the wind over how to comply with a Supreme Court instruction to address gender equity (Google Bill S-3 currently in our Senate).
But then Minister Melanie Joly did something pretty darn incredible and impressive in my view.
Along with LaRose, she announced that key audiovisual industry organizations are collaborating to create an Indigenous Screen Office for Canada. In what looks like a well-coordinated initiative through the Canada Media Fund, APTN, the CBC, the CMF, Telefilm Canada, the CMPA, and the NFB have made this possible.
Associated partners include Bell Media, the Harold Greenberg Fund, and VICE Studio Canada.
Kudos to each and every one of these organizations!
Joly is also seems to be working on what sounds like an Indigenous Peoples Languages Act. That too deserves applause for tackling the 90 languages and dialects involved.
As LaRose reminded us, "when APTN launched there were only five or six indigenous producers in Canada, now there are over 100,” and so fair and equitable recognition appears to have arrived.
The un-keynote wrapped with the Minister asserting that "the best filmmakers in Hollywood are Canadian," and of course who doesn't want to see Denis Villeneuve's new Blade Runner?
To be once again fair, Joly attempting to develop public policy while technology and markets are warping and morphing at light speed is no easy task.
And I'm certain she feels that September is just around the corner.
Photo courtesy Serge Sasseville
