Financial picture

There is a lingering feeling in this country that cultural industries are the spoilt darlings of government. And that spending public money to support film and television production has more to do with motherhood than investment in the industrial mainstream.

As Canada's three main production centres of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver continue to capture the attention of the world with back-to-back festivals from August to October, it's worth spending a little time with some numbers from Statistics Canada.

Start with spending by Canadian households on cultural products.

Canadian families now spend close to 10% of all their household expenditures on culture, a sector where spending has increased dramatically in the past decade, reaching $30 billion a year in 1990.

Between 1982 and 1990 household spending on films, that is, going to movies and renting or buying videos, grew by an impressive 243%, while spending in the area of cable-tv services was also significant, and grew by 214%.

Not a bad market to be in.

More numbers. Again to cite Statistics Canada, figures show that the film and televison industry in Canada is one of the most prolific in job creation with a comparative efficiency ratio 3.2 times higher than that of the 50 largest industrial sectors in North America. Not to mention the fact that this industry does not pollute rivers or cut down tress. Film and tv people take pictures and leave.

In 1991, the film and television industry in Canada generated revenues of more than $7 billion. In the past 20 years, employment in cultural industries has risen 122%, compared to under 60% in overall employment growth. Again in 1991, the latest year for which figures are available, the industry paid out more than $2.3 billion in salaries, fees and benefits, creating 72,930 in Canada, 22,000 of which were in Quebec.

Within the film and television industry itself, it is the production sector which is the best generator of jobs, and more specifically, skilled jobs.

A $1 million investment in the production industry creates 62.7 jobs per year while the same investment creates 53.4 jobs a year in the exhibition sector, 29.2 in private television, 21.8 in distribution and 19.2 in the cable-tv business.

Surely, these figures are part of the growing body of evidence that suggests that the cultural industries deserve serious consideration when it comes to investment spending.

Yet for some reason, this message is not getting through.

A 1992 study on the arts and artists in Ontario by Paul Audley and Associates reports that all forms of federal spending on arts and culture, direct and indirect, rose from $1.8 billion in 1984/85 to $1.9 billion in 1991/92. In the same period, overall federal spending rose 41.9%, while the gross national expenditure rose 52.7% and inflation rose almost 37%. In other words, in real or contstant dollars, federal spending on arts and cultural industries declined 24.2% during the period.

More cuts at Telefilm Canada and cbc in the next year, and beyond, will only accelerate the decline.

We already know that Canadians won't be finding jobs as textile workers, shoe makers or furniture manufacturers. Wouldn't it be a pity if we let the same thing happen to film and TV?