Question Period Note: Restructuring of the National Film Board of Canada

On December 5, 2019, the National Film Board (NFB) announced an organizational restructuring, which involves the merger of all 11 NFB studios within the French and English Programs. The restructuring will eliminate three Executive Director positions, two management positions (Chief Digital Officer and the Executive Director of Operations and Production, Digital), and one administrative positon. The NFB will also announce its intention to appoint an Indigenous person to serve as an external advisor on Indigenous affairs.

• Canada’s audiovisual sector, including the National Film Board, is a dynamic component of our economy and our Canadian identity.
• As a Departmental agency, the National Film Board operates at arm’s length from the government. As such, it makes its own operational decisions.

• Founded in 1939, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has a mandate to produce and distribute audiovisual works that reflect Canadian values and perspectives to Canadians and the world.
• The NFB is a departmental agency that operates at arm’s length from the Government, overseen by the Government Film Commissioner who is also the Chair of a Board comprised of six Trustees. Although the National Film Act stipulates that the Minister of Canadian Heritage shall control and direct the operations of the NFB, there is a longstanding tradition whereby the Minister does not intervene in the day-to-day operations of the organization.
• Claude Joli-Coeur is the current Government Film Commissioner and Chairperson. His appointment was renewed on June 27, 2019, for a term of three years.
• The NFB has two main business lines: (i) audiovisual production and (ii) accessibility and audience engagement. The vast majority of the NFB’s productions are documentaries or animation films. As well, the NFB continues to digitize its film collection (one of the world’s largest, with 13,000 titles) in order to make it accessible to audiences worldwide. The public face of the NFB’s digital transformation is its online screening room, NFB.ca, which offers free viewing of close to 3,000 NFB productions.
• Budget 2016 provided the NFB with $13.5 million over five years to increase support for the production of Canadian documentaries, animation, and digital content.
• The NFB received a parliamentary appropriation of $68.4 million for 2019-20. This parliamentary appropriation includes a $4.6 million cash advance for the relocation of the NFB's head office, for which the total loan is $14.4 million from the Government, repayable over twelve years from 2020-21.
• The NFB recently completed the move of its headquarters in Montreal to a new building in the Quartier des Spectacles entertainment district.
• For some time now, a group of over 200 freelance directors who create films and audiovisual works for the NFB has raised an issue regarding a decline in funding for production at the NFB. They claim that over the past 16 years, there has been a decline in funding for production at the NFB, that fewer films are being made, budgets have plummeted and filmmakers are paid less now than they were twenty years ago, and far less than most NFB employees. The group also criticized what they perceive to be a stark difference between the working conditions of the filmmakers, and those enjoyed by NFB staff and management.
• On December 5, 2019, the National Film Board (NFB) announced an organizational restructuring, which involves the merger of all 11 NFB studios within the French and English Programs with a view to:
o Better share expertise and practices in documentary, auteur animation films, and interactive and immersive works;
o Enable more direct collaboration between the executive producers of the English and French Programs;
o Increase the decision-making power and increased accountability of executive producers in studios; and
o Simplify decision-making and management processes.
• More specifically, the restructuring will eliminate three Executive Director positions, two management positions (Chief Digital Officer and the Executive Director of Operations and Production, Digital), and one administrative positon. Five employees will be affected in total. Rather than reporting to Executive Directors, executive producers in studios will report directly to the Director General of Creation and Innovation, a position that is currently vacant and will be filled in the coming months.
• The NFB will also announce its intention to appoint an Indigenous person to serve as an external advisor on Indigenous affairs.
• Between January and March 2020, the NFB will undertake a series of cross-country consultations with creators and professional associations in the Canadian audiovisual sector to inform development of the NFB’s 2020–2023 Strategic Plan.
• These consultations will take place in partnership with the Canadian Media Producers Association, the Documentary Organization of Canada, the Directors Guild of Canada, the Association des réalisateurs et réalisatrices du Québec, and ONF/NFB Creation.

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