Feds offer $50-million fund to film, TV productions struggling to get insurance
Canadian producers are applauding a new temporary federal relief fund to help film and television productions that have been stalled by a lack of COVID-19 insurance.
On Friday Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault announced the $50-million fund as a short-term measure that will be managed through Telefilm Canada and the Canada Media Fund.
The fund will offer productions a maximum compensation of $1.5 million in the case of a temporary interruption and $3 million in the case of a complete shutdown of production.
“There’s rarely been a single issue affecting this industry as profoundly as this one, so obviously the news is very welcome,” said Calgary-based “Wynonna Earp” producer
Tom Cox, who’s been waiting for months for such a relief measure so he can move forward on some upcoming productions.
“There were literally tens of thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of (dollars in) production activity on the line, and they recognized that and have put forward a positive proposal that obviously will be of absolutely essential value to the industry.”
Guilbeault said a production company would need to meet certain criteria in order to be eligible for the fund.
“It would have to be a production owned and controlled by Canadians regarding Canadian production,” Guilbeault said in a conference call with reporters.
“The company would have to have a COVID security plan. It would have to be an independent production company, so not affiliated with a broadcaster.”
Telefilm will announce more information on the implementation of the new fund in the coming weeks, he added, noting the ministry is “literally running to put this together and get this in operation as soon as possible.”
“We will be looking at the evolution of the situation very closely and if we need to do more to help the sector, as we have throughout the sector, we will continue to do that.”
The announcement comes after the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) and the Association quebecoise de la production mediatique pushed for a fund, where producers would pay premiums to access COVID-19 coverage and the government would offer a $100-million backstop if money generated though the sale of the policies was insufficient to cover the claims made.
The crisis arose during the pandemic when some insurance companies that service the film and TV industry started excluding from their new production policies any coverage for COVID on a go-forward basis.